


Halloween Horrors

by babygirl127



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003)
Genre: Gen, Halloween, Haunted Houses, Kidnapping, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 18:44:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 29,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12238569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babygirl127/pseuds/babygirl127
Summary: Weird things are happening in New York and the turtles are determined to get to the bottom of it. The only problem, things are quite what they seem.





	1. Prologue

A frantic heartbeat and harsh breathing filled Mikey’s ears. Wide blue eyes flicked wildly around the room as Mikey backed himself up against a wall with his nunchucks spinning dangerously in front of him.

The peeling wallpaper and low gargling from the sink gave the kitchen he was in an eerie vibe. In the corner the refrigerator stood silently foreboding despite its decrepit state of disrepair.

He was alone.

Each of his brothers had disappeared one by one. _Taken_ a small portion of his brain whispered to him. _They were taken and you’re next._

Squeezing his eyes shut tight Mikey shook his head vigorously to try and rid himself of the unpleasant thoughts. His brothers were fine. They were ninjas after all. They had all faced off against worse than a scary apartment building before and come out the other side. _You were all together during those fights though_ the annoying little voice inside of his head reminded him.

“Not always,” Mikey whispered to himself as he squared his shoulders. “I fought Kluh all alone and beat him twice. I can face this alone and beat it too. My bros are counting on me and I’m not going to let them down.”

Reminding himself of what he was fighting for brought back some of the determination and confidence that had been whittled away with the disappearances of his brothers.

Almost as though sensing the return of the youngest turtle’s confidence and having a desire to squash it, all of the cabinet doors in the kitchen flung themselves open, banging loudly against one another. Drawers shot out of their holders spilling forgotten utensils across the floor. The groaning that he been coming from the sink suddenly got louder right before murky water began gushing from the ancient faucet.

Turning on his heels Mikey rushed out of the kitchen and away from the invisible entity tearing the room apart. As Mikey raced into the living area whatever had decided to trash the kitchen followed. The broad dust covered windows shook in their frames. The only things keeping them from being flung wide open to let who knows what inside were the old rusty locks.

His nunchucks were spinning at a deadly rate of speed in his hands as Mikey spun around searching for where the attack was going to come from that he was sure was headed his way. Above his head the abandoned lightbulbs flickered weakly to life before becoming brighter and brighter until Mikey had to squint to see. The lightbulbs gave one more vicious pulse of light before shattering and sending shards of glass raining down onto the floor.

Michelangelo was no coward but even he knew when he was in over his head and this was it. It was time for a tactical retreat back to the lair to get Splinter. With his sensei’s help Mikey felt he’d have a better chance of finding and saving his brothers.

Mikey made a giant leap over the hazardous array of glass and to the front door of the apartment quickly tucking away one weapon to free his hand as he went. Reaching for the doorknob the sea green turtle gave it a sharp tug to escape the crazy apartment into the hallway only for the door to refuse to budge so much as an inch. A quick glance told the turtle that none of the locks were engaged and a second yank at the door proved just as futile as the first.

The door had been locked from the outside.

Mikey was trapped and alone.


	2. Chapter 1

It was a rare clear night in the Big Apple and the two youngest of the Hamato ninja clan were taking full advantage of it. Tonight had been a patrol night and Leo had decided that since there wasn’t too much in terms of crime that had gone beyond minor vandalism they could do more relaxed sweeps of the city.

When Leo had made that decision Mikey had immediately taken hold of Don’s hands and pulled them off towards Central Park without hesitation. It was a nice night out, a little chilly, but nothing that they couldn’t handle as long as they were smart about it. There was one thing that Mikey was looking forward to tonight and it was something that he wanted to share with his immediately older brother.

“Come on Donnie,” Mikey urged as he tugged at his brother’s arm. “You’re going so slow tonight.”

“I’m a turtle Mikey,” Don said in a deadpan tone of voice. “We aren’t known for being all that fast.”

Mikey rolled his eyes but didn’t slow his pace. If Don couldn’t keep up than there was always the option of dragging him along. Mikey couldn’t stop a chuckle at the mental imagine of him dragging his brainy brother through the city just because he wasn’t running fast enough.

It wasn’t completely Don’s fault that he wasn’t as fast as his younger brother. Mikey knew that Don spent more time exercising his brain than the rest of them did and that he himself was just more naturally athletic than his brothers which gave him an edge. Knowing all of that didn’t mean that the youngest wasn’t going to take advantage of his natural gifts and tease his older brother about being a slowpoke.

Over the rooftops and through a variety of alleyways the two youngest Hamato’s weaved their way through the city until they came to the edge of Central Park as Mikey ushered them inside.

“Why are we here Mikey?” Don asked as he followed behind his brother, taking a moment to assess their surroundings. “I know Leo said we could pick where we wanted to patrol tonight but I do think he actually meant for us to keep patrolling, not to just hang around the park.”

Mikey rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue at the chastisement even though he knew his older brother wouldn’t be able to see it and kept going.

“You have so little faith in me Donnie. I know what Leo said. It wasn’t like it was all that long ago,” he replied. “There have to be people still in the park at this time of night that we can protect. Besides, I wanted to show you something.”

Deciding that arguing with his little brother would be useless Don chose not to respond as they kept going. After a few minutes of walking Mikey drew them to a halt on a small hill in the middle of a clearing of trees. Immediately the smaller turtle dropped down onto the ground and laid on his back as he pointed up at the sky.

Don sucked in a breath as he turned his gaze upward. It hadn’t escaped his notice that the night had been clear but he hadn’t given it much thought. There was hardly a cloud in the sky and the light pollution was at a minimum leaving just enough darkness up above to make out the twinkle of a star here and there.

Slowly Don laid himself out on the ground next to Mikey without ever looking away from the sight up above.

“Mikey this is incredible. Thank you,” Don said in a hushed tone.

“We don’t get many nights like this very often and when I checked the weather before we left I thought there’d be a good chance of being able to see some stars and I thought you’d enjoy it,” Mikey said casually.

Together the two of them laid in the grass and watched stars appear and disappear from view as a stray cloud travelled across the sky. Every now and again a dark shadow flapped across their vision as bats came out of their daily sleep to find some nice juicy bugs to munch on. All in all it was a calm and relaxing way to spend the rest of their evening patrol.

At least it was calm up until a loud scream of fear pierced through the night. In an instant both ninjas were back on their feet, weapons in hand, as they looked around to identify where the scream had come from.

Another shout sounded, this time from farther away, but it was enough for the turtles to pinpoint a direction before they were off and running. Slipping through the shadows so as not to give away their position the two of them crept quickly closer to the jogging trail that looped close by the hill that they had been laying on.

Ducking down behind a handful of bushes to assess the situation and not run in blindly it didn’t take Don or Mikey very long to figure out what was happening. On the path were three people, one woman and two men. The woman was wearing a reflective jacket and had most likely been enjoying an evening jog through the park when it was less crowded. The same could not be said for the two men however.

Both of them were wearing dark clothes that would easily have hidden them from casual view until they were right up on their prey. They were both wearing baseball caps pulled down low to shield their faces from view and neither of the turtles could get a good look at them.

What Mikey and Don could get a good look at however was how the two men were holding the woman. One of the men had his arms wrapped around her chest from behind pulling her tight against him while the other was attempting to grab her by her feet to keep her from getting away.

To the woman’s credit she was putting up a fight scratching at the man behind her and kicking at the one in front. However it was clear from the turtle’s point of view that she was fighting a losing battle and would soon be overpowered if they didn’t step in soon. If they didn’t step in quickly and help, the two assailants were going to get beyond where the turtles would be able to help and that was not okay with either of them.


	3. Chapter 2

Another scream for help echoed through the nearly empty park as Don and Mikey shared a quick glance between the two of them. Nobody was getting kidnapped from the park tonight. Not while they were there and could do something to stop it.

Sliding out from behind the bushes that they had been using for cover, Don and Mikey separated so that they could attack the assailants from either side and hopefully end the assault as quickly and painlessly for the woman involved as possible.

Silently Mikey worked his way behind the man that was holding the woman to his chest. It was clear from the way he struggled to hold onto the fighting woman that he hadn’t expected her to put up such a fight but unfortunately for her his grip was strong and he wasn’t about to let go anytime soon. Or that’s what he thought anyway. Mikey had different plans.

Spinning one set of nunchucks around to gain some momentum and force, the sea green turtle waited just long enough to see a non human shaped shadow approaching from the other side of the path. Mikey narrowed his eyes as he focused on the task at hand.

Just as his brother rushed in one the other side of the fight Mikey dashed forward as well sending his spinning chuck flying at the bunching muscles of the man’s right shoulder. The hit was hard enough to instantly numb the arm and it immediately dropped away from the struggling woman.

Not stopping there Mikey used his other nunchuck to wrap around one of the man’s ankles and gave it a hard yank sending the man off balance. Jumping to the side Mikey was able to get out of the way as the man took a hard fall to the ground, twisting his other ankle in the process and sending out a sharp crack as it was either sprained or broken in the fall.

At the same time Mikey was dealing with his guy Don wasn’t holding back from his attacker. A sharp blow to the side of the head had the man dropping the woman’s feet as he brought both hands up to shield his head. Don hadn’t planned on a second headshot though. Instead he had moved straight into a lower strike at the man’s midsection forcing all of the air out of his lungs and sending him down onto his knees as he tried to choke in another breath.

As both men were sent to the ground the woman fell too having not been balanced in the fight beforehand. Landing hard she scrambled back away from her attackers and looked around wildly to see who had come to her rescue. Cautiously Mikey tucked one of his chucks back into his belt and took a slow step towards her. All of the turtles had learned from experience that not everyone they saved was very thankful afterwards and a good number would go on to attack them if they weren’t careful.

Brown hair was pushed away from the woman’s face by one of her shaking hands as she looked up to get a clearer look at who had saved her. Her eyes immediately widened in shock as she took in the two non human forms and her mouth opened in a silent gasp.

Mikey winced and took an automatic step back expecting the next thing to hear would be a scream of fright. Surprisingly the scream never came. Instead shakely gasps came from the woman as she switched her gaze back and forth between the two turtles but nothing else.

“It’s okay now,” Mikey said quietly trying hard not to spook the woman more than she already was. “They’re not going to hurt you anymore and neither are we. I’d suggest going to the police though and let them know what happened.”

“Stay where there are a lot of people though,” Don added. “You’ll be less likely to be grabbed again and if you could avoid mentioning giant turtles we’d appreciate it.”

The woman’s head gave a sharp jerk of a nod before she was scrambling to her feet and taking off down the path to the closest gate back into the city. Whether she actually went to the police or not neither brother were sure of but for now they still had the trash on the ground to take care of.

Pulling out some thing cords from their belts Mikey and Don went about hogtying the two groaning men with quick efficiency. It would do no one any good to have stopped the two from hurting one woman just to walk away and let them go without making sure that they’d learned their lesson. The two humans could continue to lay on the cold ground until the turtles were able to find a payphone and call in an anonymous tip to the police and neither ninja was overly concerned about the comfort of the men that had tried to kidnap a woman out of Central Park in the middle of the night.

Leaving the men behind Don and Mikey began the trek back home knowing that Leo would want a report from both of them before they could call it a night. One quick stop by a payphone so that if the police ever decided to try and trace the number it wouldn’t cause Don a headache making sure their trail was covered and they were on their way back to the lair.

By the time they got back home Leo and Raph had already beat them there. Upon giving their report of the attack to Leo for the leader to think about and strategize over for future fights, Raph was quick to grumble that the two elder turtles hadn’t even had that much excitement on the rest of their patrol.

With a loud yawn Mikey bid the rest of his family good night and headed up to his bedroom to crawl underneath the covers and sleep until either noon tomorrow or until Leo came to drag him out of bed and down to morning practice. Waiting on his bed Klunk’s head popped up as Mikey walked into his bedroom and the tiny cat began purring at his return.

Mikey smiled as he pet his cat and urged the feline to move over so that he could fit on the bed as well. Eventually Mikey made room for himself as he bundled the blankets tight around his shell to ward off the nighttime chill and fell into a restful slumber with Klunk purring away in his ear.


	4. Chapter 3

The loud annoying blare of an alarm clock beeping filled the messy bedroom waking the sole occupant. A low groan issued from under the mound of blankets as a sea green arm darted out, hit the snooze button, and immediately retreated back underneath the warm nest. October was drawing to a close and it was starting to get colder even down in the lair insulated by the Y'Lyntian crystals.

Don hadn’t yet brought out the space heaters that they used over the winter to keep warm. This meant that Mikey had to make a nest of blankets each night to stay nice and toasty warm which in turn made it harder to get out of the bed in the morning. Mikey was staring at his clock contemplating the pros and cons of hitting the snooze button one more time and staying in his warm nest longer when the sound of loud incessant pounding on his door drew his undivided attention.

“Come on pipsqueak,” Raph’s deep voice sounded through the door. “Get your butt out of bed. I ain’t listening to sensei’s lecture about punctuality again because you couldn’t get yourself to practice on time.”

Mikey groaned unhappily and pulled the top blanket up over his head to drown out his brother’s warning only to have his clock start beeping incessantly. Letting out a second, louder, groan Mikey ripped the blanket off letting the chilled air hit his skin and turned off the alarm. With nothing else keeping him in bed Mikey rolled out of his makeshift nest and quickly pulled on his gear.

Opening the bedroom door found Raph still standing there glaring at his younger brother making sure that he was actually getting up and not going to fall back to sleep. Raph gave a grunt of approval before turning and leading the way downstairs and to the dojo. Mikey was the last to enter as Leo and Don were already warming up under their sensei’s watchful eyes.

The two brightly banded turtles were quick to join their brothers to warm up before Master Splinter put them through their paces. By the time practice was finished the last thing on Mikey’s mind was how cold he had been when he first got up. Now he was wiping sweat off of his body while he worked on evening out his breath. Sometimes the youngest forgot just how formidable a ninja Master Splinter was until he did things like this and Mikey was reminded once more how dangerous his father could be when he wanted to be.

Now that practice was over, dangerous was the last thing Master Splinter was as he allowed the sensei in him to be replaced by the father as he dismissed his sons to their own endeavours with a fond smile. The first endeavour that each of the turtles had in mind was breakfast.

Don immediately poured some coffee for both himself and Raph while Leo started a pot of tea and Mikey set about gathering the ingredients to make omelettes. While all of them knew how to cook for themselves, Mikey was by far and away the best at it. In exchange for cooking most of the meals he got fewer of the dish washing duties. The only exception was when the youngest made it look like a bomb had gone off in the kitchen. Those times he was on his own for clean up.

By the time four steaming omelettes were plated and on the table Raph had already stolen two handfuls of the cherry tomatoes that Mikey had been cooking with and Leo and Don were pouring over that morning’s newspaper. Mikey quickly dug into his own portions as he listened to the appreciative moans of pleasure coming from his brothers. Cooking was fun and all but Mikey’s favorite part was watching others enjoy what he had made.

Now that things were settling down and the adrenaline from practice was fading away Mikey’s thoughts turned back to waking up that morning. The kitchen was warm due to the heat from the stove but Mikey knew that eventually he would end up back in his cold bed. That was unless he could find a way to get his brainy brother to work on the space heaters that the youngest was certain none of them would be opposed to getting sooner rather than later.

"Hey Donnie," Mikey said with a mouthful of eggs. "When do you think you'll have the space heaters ready to put in our rooms? While I don't mind curling up in a nest every night, I know you guys don't have an amazing cat like Klunk to curl up with and keep warm at night. Plus I can't let my little kitty get cold at night. What kind of daddy would that make me?"

Don rolled his eyes good naturedly as he swallowed the food in his mouth before replying unlike his little brother. "I should have them ready to go in a few days. I've been busier than usual with some projects that I hadn't expected. Do you think you and Klunk can make it a few more days?"

"Uhhhh," Mikey groaned out though the smile on his face showed that he wasn't really upset about that. "I supposed I can make it that long. What kind of stuff are you working on?"

"Just some boring mechanical stuff," Don said as he cut off another portion of his omelette. "I can show you the blueprints and go over everything with you later if you want."

Mikey's eyes widened at the offer and quickly shook his head. "No thanks dude. I'll leave you with all that smarty pants stuff and just stick with my brain melting comics."

Raph and Leo chuckled at the same time at their little brother's reaction but neither made a comment on it.

"Hey Don what do you make of this article?" Leo asked as he held out the page of the newspaper that he had been looking at.

Don twisted himself around in his chair to get a better look at the page. "What do you want me to look at?"

"This article right here," Leo pointed at what he wanted his brother to look at. "I remember seeing something like this a few days ago about this same area of town. Have you noticed anything coming up online about this area? We need to stay on top of things like this if there's an uptick of crime in a specific section of the city."

"Maybe we can take a look over there on patrol tonight. You know me, I don't mind taking out any punks that think they can move in on my city. Especially after we got so little action last night," Raph commented as he cracked his knuckles in anticipation.

Leo frowned slightly at Raph's comment though not at his brother himself. "That's the thing though Raph, I'm not sure that there is an uptick in crime exactly. At least according to what I've read in the papers there isn't so much a crime wave as there are missing people."

That got everyone else attention. For the most part they didn't pay much attention to missing persons cases if there weren't crimes attached to them like last night’s kidnapping attempt had been. There was only so much that they could do before they had to let the police take care of the city and do their own jobs.

"If it's just a case of a bunch of people going missing then what can we do about it Leo?" Mikey questioned wanting to know what his older brother had in mind. "I'm not quite sure how that's our area of expertise."

"Normally it isn't but the suspicious thing that I've noticed from the papers is that everyone seems to be going missing within a six block radius."

"That is a little unusual," Don agreed as he thought over what his leader was saying. "Statistically speaking, people don't tend to go missing from such a close area just out of coincidence. That does sound like there might be a correlation between the amount of missing people and the area itself. It's at least worth taking a look at. I know six blocks isn't a large area in comparison to the city as a whole but is there anywhere in particular that you want to focus in on tonight?"

“Let’s take this to your lab so we can pull up some maps,” Leo suggested as he picked up his empty plate and took it to the sink.

His brothers followed Leo’s example stacking their plates in the sink to be taken care of later. As they made their way out of the kitchen Mikey paused on the way out by Leo’s seat to glance down at the newspaper left behind. The bold headline of the article Leo had been referring to read **Another Ghost Added To Already Haunted City Block**.


	5. Chapter 4

Together all four turtles walked into Don’s lab and gathered around the genius’s desk as Don took a seat and pulled up a map of the city on his computer. Leo placed one hand on the back of Don’s chair as he leaned in to get a closer look while Raph and Mikey elbowed each other to try and get a better view.

“So this is a map of the area where the people have gone missing from based on those news stories,” Don said as he zoomed in on the map and clicked a few buttons until a bunch of red dots popped up. “Each dot represents a person that has gone missing in the last month.”

“That sure looks like an awful lot of dots for such a small area Don. Is that normal?” Raph asked as he leaned closer to get a better view.

Don shook his head as he used to mouse to scroll around on the map, zooming out to see the scattering of dots got thinner the farther away from the six block diameter that they got.

“No, see how everything else is fairly evenly spread across the map except for that one area. That is definitely not normal. Sure the law of large numbers says that it is a statistical possibility but it’s more like us being mutated. It can happen but it is so unlikely as to not be considered possible.”

“So what are we going to do about it?” Mikey asked looking up from the computer and turning his gaze over to Leo looking for answers. “I mean is there anything we can really do about a bunch of people going missing from the same place?”

Leo frowned as his eyes scanned across the screen taking in everything that Don was showing them.

“We can take a look. If we split up during patrol we could cover more area and do a thorough sweep so see if there is anything in common between the people that have gone missing,” Leo thought out loud. “There might not be a whole lot that we can do ourselves but if we find something useful, even if we can’t do anything with it, we can pass the information on to the police anonymously.”

“And here I am hoping we do find something that we can deal with ourselves,” Raph said as he let his fingers trail across the handles of his sais. “Nobody messes with our city and gets away with it.”

Mikey couldn’t stop the thrumming of his heart in his chest. He was a ninja and trained to protect those that couldn’t protect themselves. He may not be as vocal about it as Raph was but he still felt the same. He didn’t like the idea of people being kidnapped and taken against their will and he wanted to do something to stop it.

That most likely meant walking into danger though. While they were all trained to deal with dangerous situations, that was why their father trained them so hard like they had that morning, that didn’t mean that Mikey never felt his stomach twist up in knots before hand.

Dangerous meant a chance of someone getting hurt. Someone getting hurt meant that he could be coming back home without one of his brothers and that was never an acceptable option for any of them. Not knowing what they were dealing with or what was taking people just increased the danger in the situation.

“Do you think splitting up is really the best idea?” Mikey questioned. “I mean we don’t exactly know what we’re dealing with. Wouldn’t it be smarter to face it all together. It’s not like six blocks is all that big.”

“It’s not a matter of the size of the city that I’m concerned about,” Leo said as he turned so that he could face all of his brothers. “It’s being thorough and being quick. According to the reports I’ve read in the newspapers the rate of people disappearing has been increasing these past few weeks. I don’t want anyone else going missing when we could have done something to prevent it.”

“And we’re sure that none of these people have just up and left without telling anyone?” asked Raph. “I mean it’s not like people don’t do that all the time. And this part of the city isn’t exactly known for being a popular tourist destination. Most people living in that area don’t have much of a choice. If someone got a chance at something better it wouldn’t be unheard of for them to just up and move away without letting any of their neighbors know.”

“True but people like that also don’t tend to be reported as missing to the police,” Don interjected. “That means that there is at least someone that cares about them who they presumably cared about in return that doesn’t know what happened to them and wants them found. If it were just a case of someone escaping a bad living environment most likely no one would have really given it much notice.”

“It also wouldn’t account for just how clumped together all of the missing persons cases are in one area,” Leo said. “If what you’re saying happened Raph then there are still way more people disappearing then there should be to account for all of the reports.”

Raph grumbled quietly to himself but didn’t argue the point further. Everyone turned their attention back to Don as he continued typing rapidly bring up more maps on one screen while on a second monitor he started hacking into the police database to bring up the different missing persons reports that had been taken over the past few weeks.

Faces flashed across the screen showing everyone from teenagers to seniors, male and female, and multiple different races. There was nothing that any of them could spot in the quick perusal that connected the different missing people. It seemed like they all came from different walks of life which was going to make the turtles’ self decided mission to find out what happened to them all that much harder.

As Mikey continued to stare at the computer screens he couldn’t help but feel like something more than just people going missing was going on. He could only hope that they weren’t getting themselves in over their heads.


	6. Chapter 5

After a little more talking the four of them separated to go about their own activities to pass the day while they waited for it to be dark enough for them to go on patrol. There was no doubt in Mikey’s mind that Leo and Don were continuing to pour over all of the information that they could get their hands on. Mikey wasn’t sure what Raph was up to but he knew what he had in mind.

Mikey headed up to his room where he was pretty sure Klunk would be. Pushing open his room door, Mikey’s ankles were immediately assaulted by a blur almost as orange as his mask.

“Hey Klunkers,” Mikey cooed as he knelt down to scratch at the purring cat. “How’s daddy’s favorite baby doing?”

Klunk just purred louder and arched into Mikey’s fingers enjoying the attention that he was receiving. Mike smiled and scooped his pet up cuddling the small cat to his chest. As far as the youngest turtle was concerned Klunk was the best gift that he had ever gotten and he couldn’t imagine life without the tiny orange furball now.

With Klunk tucked in one arm Mikey used his free hand to swipe a laser pointer off of his desk and headed back downstairs. Taking a seat on the couch Mikey flipped the laser pointer on and Klunk immediately jumped from his arms and took off after the red dot. A giant grin formed on Mikey’s face as he flicked the laser pointer across the floor watching his pet chase after his prey.

Mikey relaxed back into the couch cushions and just enjoyed the moment. As he sat there the orange masked ninja let his mind wander over the missing people that Leo and Don were researching and what Raph had said about why they might have disappeared. What would make someone just up and leave everything?

Mikey reasoned if they had, they would have had to have left not just everyone but everything behind. If someone took all of their belongings with them, even if they didn't tell anyone that they were leaving then the police should reasonably assume that the person had just moved away. After all, a grown adult was under no obligation to tell anyone where they were going or what they were doing.

Without any signs of foul play there wasn't much that the police could do especially when they had other cases that they needed to focus their limited resources on. However if belongings had been left behind, then the police would have probable cause to assume something nefarious might have happened, especially if the items looked ransacked.

Mikey directed at the laser dot up a nearby wall and watched as Klunk made a spectacular leap after it while the turtle continued to muse over the situation. When they went out tonight to scout around the area where most of the disappearances had occurred Mikey thought he would suggest that they take a closer look at the apartments where the people had disappeared from to see for themselves if there was something that looked out of place. Until then he was going to put this out of his mind and just enjoy this time with his cat.

The rest of his day was spent relaxing around the lair and doing whatever he felt like in the moment. Making a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich for lunch. Check. Beating his record time on one of his older video games. Check. Skateboarding down the railing from the second floor, nearly knocking Master Splinter over, and having his board taken away from him for the rest of the week. Check, check, and check.

Now that it was time to head out and Mikey was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet. He had energy to burn and he was ready to head out and burn it up. Together the four of them left the lair and headed out into the sewer tunnels. Leo had decided that they would at least start their journey through the sewers in order to avoid as much of the cool night air as they could for as long as they could. As much as they wanted to help the people of the city they also needed to take care of themselves or they wouldn’t be of use to anyone.

One by one they jogged in single file through the tunnels until they came to a manhole cover that would take them to the surface just outside of the Little Italy section of the city where Mikey insisted that they always get their pizza from. It was still a few miles outside of the zone they wanted to check out but it was close enough for them to remain undetected.

Leo was the first out of the sewers leading the way up to the rooftop before he ceded the lead to Don so the genius turtle could take them to where he thought was the best place to begin their recon. Don wasn’t the fastest of the four of them but speed wasn’t what they needed tonight. Stealth and observation were the words to live by on this mission and as Mikey watched his older brother leading them through the city there was no doubt that the techie turtle embodied both of those ideas.

The cool crisp October air rushed by his face as Mikey jumped from roof to roof with his brothers beside him. As he ran Mikey couldn’t stop himself from looking down at the windows beneath them covered in Halloween decorations for the quickly approaching holiday. Cobwebs, cats, spiders, and ghosts decorated windows and doorways everywhere Mikey could see. It felt like everyone that owned a business was getting into the holiday spirit.

Jumping from one roof to the next Mikey spared a thought that maybe the weird vibe that he was getting about this mission was just due to the upcoming holiday. He did like scary movies and the adrenaline rush that he got from them and the missing people did remind him of so many movies that were shown around this time of year.

Shaking his head to clear his mind, Mikey focused on putting his worries aside to focus on the task at hand. This was real life and not some scary supernatural movie. There was a reasonable explanation as to what was happening and they would find out what it was. There was no reason to let his imagination run away with him.


	7. Chapter 6

Don brought them all to a stop just outside of the search radius and pulled a map out of the duffle bag he had brought along with him. Unfolding it out on the rooftop the four of them gathered around so that they could all see it while Leo laid out their game plan.

“So these are all of the buildings that people have disappeared from,” Leo said as he pointed to each one in turn. “There doesn’t seem to be much of a pattern outside of all of them being so tightly packed into one area. What we’re going to do tonight is scout around these blocks and see if anything stands out as out of the ordinary.

“Keep your shell cells turned on and check in if you see anything. Raph and Mikey, you two take the north side. Don and I will take the south side. Be thorough but don’t drag your feet. We’ll meet back here on this roof in two hours. Any questions?”

The three younger turtles all shook their heads no as Don gathered the map and rolled it back up before sliding it back into his bag. Mikey cast a long look at the city in front of him before following behind Raph as his older brother took off for designated part of the city to search through.

As they moved silently over the rooftops Mikey couldn’t help but wonder what exactly they were supposed to be looking for. He knew Leo had said anything out of the ordinary but in a city like New York, anything out of the ordinary was in and of itself ordinary.

Despite his uncertainties, Mikey was determined to give nothing less than his very best. He may not be as outspoken as Raph when it came to the hothead’s possessiveness of their city but Mikey didn’t feel it any less. The youngest turtle hated to see anyone hurt and he was going to do everything in his power to make sure that no one else was and to help those that had already gone missing if he could.

Letting Raph take the lead, Mikey followed behind casting his eyes down at the ground to observe the people that were roaming the sidewalks. Every handful of alleyways they passed Raph would bring them to a halt and perch on the edge for a few minutes to more carefully watch the humans to check for any behavior that might give them a clue as to why people were going missing. After finding nothing that required their attention they would be off again to repeat the process all over again a few more streets down the way.

One thing Mikey noticed right very quickly into the patrol was that his brother was taking a much more cautious approach than he normally did. Typically when Raph was topside without Leo than he took a greater hit first and ask questions later approach. The fact that Raph felt the need to slow down this way was putting Mikey more on edge than anything else had to this point.

Up ahead of him, Raph had come to a halt on the edge of the roof and looked down at the streets below them once again. Mikey slid up to Raph’s side and gave a quick glance to the street but saw nothing different from the other countless times they had done this tonight.

“Hey Raph,” Mikey said carefully thinking through what he was going to say so he wouldn’t upset the calm patrol that they’d had so far. “What’s up with how slow we’re going? I know Leo said to be thorough but this seems a little excessive don’t you think?”

Raph frowned but never took his eyes off the streets below.

“No I don’t think it’s excessive Mikey,” Raph said, voice deep but not the dangerous growl Mikey had been expecting. “People are disappearing left and right down there. People that have homes and families and people that care about them and no one knows what’s happened to them. The police haven’t been able to find them and if they don’t know what happened to those people then they can’t stop it from happening to others.”

The more Raph talked the more his hands clenched into tighter and tighter fists until his knuckles were just a pale green. From where he was crouched down Mikey could practically feel his brother vibrating with his pent up frustration. The reaction was no surprise to the younger brother but that didn’t mean that Mikey considered it a good idea to let Raph get lost in his anger.

“The police might not be able to do anything just yet but we’re working on it too and we’re not just going to give up,” Mikey assured, setting on hand on Raph’s shoulder to try and calm his brother down. “We are going to keep hunting and search until we find out what’s going on. You know that Raph.”

The larger turtle closed his eyes and took a deep breath before letting it go again. Gradually Raph relaxed his hands and flexed his fingers to get the blood flowing again. As Mikey’s words sunk in Raph was able to rein his temper back in and focus once again on the task at hand.

“Thanks Mikey,” Raph said quietly.

Standing up again Raph lead the way off the roof they were currently on and over streets until they were a block and a half away from where they had last stopped. As they slowed down from their jog Mikey automatically made his way over to the edge to see what was going on in this part of the city.

The streets below were more crowded than the ones that they had been watching earlier and Mikey took a minute to make sure that his eyes roamed over each and every face beneath him. They all knew from long experience that criminals could come in any size or shape and to never make assumptions.

A shout and the sounds of a sidewalk kiosk being knocked into drew Mikey’s attention as he focused on the teenagers causing the ruckus. Looking over his shoulder to see if Raph thought they should follow them to investigate caused Mikey to pause. Where his older brother had been standing behind him just moments ago now there was no one.

Raph was gone.


	8. Chapter 7

Mikey’s heartbeat staccatoed for a moment as he took in the empty rooftop in front of him. Raph was nowhere to be seen as Mikey whipped his head around to look in each of the shadows that fell across the area. Though they were ninjas and knew had to use any shadow that they could find to hide in, they also knew how to spot others hiding in the darkness and it was clear to Mikey that he was all alone right now.

“Raph,” Mikey hissed as loudly as he dared not wanting to bring unwanted attention to where he was currently hiding from the view of those on the streets below.

It was highly unlikely that someone had taken Raph away by force since there was no chance he would have gone quietly and Mikey definitely would have noticed that. The only reason Mikey could think of that Raph would take off without letting him know, since that was one of the big rules when any of them went topside, was that he had seen someone about to get hurt and had no time to warn his brother.

Knowing that such a situation would therefore be urgent Mikey hurried along the edge of the roof to see where Raph had gone off to.

“Raph,” Mikey called out louder as he he rounded the corner and looked down into the alleyway and continued on when he didn’t see his brother. “Raph!”

“Quiet down Mikey,” Raph’s voice drifted up from from the back of the building they had been resting on. “Someone’s gonna hear your big mouth.”

Quickly Mikey raced to where Raph’s voice was coming from and looked over the side to see his brother perched on a fire escape attached to the back of the building. The frantic pounding of his heart in Mikey’s chest slowed down as he saw his brother standing there safe and sound.

“What the shell dude?” Mikey hissed as he climbed over the edge of the roof and onto the fire escape beside Raph. “What was with the disappearing act and why are you creeping outside someone’s window?”

Raph spared a glance at his brother before turning his attention back to the window of the apartment on the top floor. The lights were out inside the apartment but none of the windows had any curtains and the streetlights from the other side of the building casted just enough light to show that there was no one in any of the rooms that could be seen.

“I had a thought a few streets back,” Raph said in answer to Mikey’s questions. “With some of the people that have disappeared the police don’t even know where they went missing from. All they know is that it didn’t happen where a lot of people were around or someone would have seen something and most likely reported it. One of the latest victims lived here and I wanted to see if there was something that we could see that was overlooked.”

Mikey bit his lip as he thought over what Raph was telling him. Snooping around someone’s apartment was definitely not what Leo’d had in mind when he told them to scout out the blocks. Than again, if they could find some useful information that could help them track down the people that were disappearing than that should be what counted and it wasn’t like Mikey hadn’t been thinking about checking out the homes of the missing people earlier.

When Mikey didn’t offer any protests Raph set his hands against the bottom of the window sill and pushed up to check and see if it was unlocked. The window didn’t budge an inch under Raph’s force and the emerald green ninja let go instead of risking breaking the window and drawing attention to their point of entry.

Instead Raph reached into his belt and pulled out one of his sais and used the tip to jimmy the lock open. This time when he pushed against the window it slid up with ease allowing the two turtles to slip in quietly undetected.

As their feet touched down inside what was evidently the kitchen they both stood still and listened carefully to see if their presence had been noticed by anyone. Hearing nothing Mikey made his way passed his brother and carefully crept down the narrow hallway checking rooms as he went along to see if any of them were occupied. While this had been Raph’s idea and he would get the most chewing out by Leo and their father if things went south, Mikey was under no allusions that he would be in almost as much trouble for having gone along with it.

Finding no one else in the apartment Mikey headed back to where his brother was quickly but thoroughly checking over the kitchen and attached living room. A quick shake of his head from Mikey told Raph that they had the place to themselves before the younger ninja began to help his brother in the impromptu search.

From what he could see Mikey guessed that they were looking at an apartment rented by just one man based on the items that he could see scattered around if Casey’s home was anything to go by. A disorganized pile of mail that didn’t date anymore recently than a week and a half ago was laid out on the kitchen counter. A few empty bottle of beer and soda were piled next to the garbage can. Magazines and DVD cases lay on top of the coffee table in the living room.

All in all the place looked well lived in and yet incredible empty at the same time. There was nothing to suggest that anyone had made an attempt to clean up before leaving the place but at the same time there was no indication that anyone had been forced out of the dwelling against their will.

A quick look in the other rooms of the place told a similar story to the front two rooms. It was puzzling to Mikey just how normal everything seemed. If Raph hadn’t told him that this was the apartment of one of the people having gone missing Mikey would have just assumed that it belonged to someone that worked a night shift and that was why it was empty at the moment.

Finding nothing to give any indication as to where the owner of the place might be, the two ninjas climbed back out the window making sure to twist the lock closed behind them. It wouldn’t do to give anyone any indication that they had been there. Satisfied that they had left no trace of themselves Raph pointed back up to the roof and they climbed back up to their own personal highway over the city.

It was starting to get late and their two hours of patrol was nearing to an end. Taking a running start the two leapt from one roof to another as they made their way back to the meeting point with Leo and Don. They didn’t have much to report but Mikey hoped that their brothers had better luck than they did. At this rate they were going to need it.


	9. Chapter 8

By the time Mikey and Raph met back up with their brothers it was getting late and the traffic along the sidewalks and streets was thinning out as people made their way home and to their beds. After over three hours of patrolling the turtles were beginning to feel the same way as well.

The run home was quiet as each of the four of them focused on remaining unseen until they were safely back down in the sewers. This time Leo took the lead all the way back as they made their way down into the tunnels beneath the streets and back to the hidden lair that they called home.

Once the hidden door was closed behind them shutting out the outside world the three youngest ninjas made their way into the kitchen to sit around the table. Leo broke off from the group to go and inform their father of their return and to give their sensei a quick rundown of what had happened while they were topside. This was a tradition that they had been following almost as long as they had been going topside on patrol.

While they waited for their brother Mikey and Raph each grabbed bottles of water before taking their seats and looking on at watch their genius brother was doing. Don had chosen to forgo anything to drink for the moment as he pulled out the map that he had referenced before they had split up making notes around the edges of it.

Mikey looked on as Don took out a colored pencil and began lightly shading over the area that he and Leo had been assigned for patrol that night. From just the quick glance it looked to the youngest as though Leo and Don had covered much more area than he and Raph had.

When Don was finished Mikey picked up another colored pencil and lightly shaded over the area he and Raph had covered. By the time Mikey was done Leo had joined them in the kitchen. Together the four of them looked over the map. The colored area that indicated where they had patrolled only covered about half of the overall area people had gone missing from. Of that Mikey and Raph had patrolled less than half of what their brothers had.

It didn’t escape Mikey’s notice when Leo’s brow took a slight frown when he saw what his brothers had shown on the map. Mikey’s stomach twisted uncomfortably at his leader’s expression. While the youngest had no problem trying to get around any rule that he didn’t care for, he also didn’t like disappointing his big brother.

“We were trying to be thorough like you wanted us to be and make sure that no one was taken while we were patrolling,” Mikey began explaining to try and subdue any sensor that Leo might have. “I mean if Don and I hadn’t been in the park last night that woman probably wouldn’t have made it home and Raph and I didn’t want that to happen tonight just because we were going too fast and not paying enough attention to the people down on the streets.”

“Mikey,” Leo said sharply placing a hand on the youngest’s shoulder and cutting off the rambling. “I know you two were doing what you thought was best and not just goofing around. Neither of you would do that when there is something important going on.”

Leo gave Mikey’s shoulder a comforting squeeze before letting go and moving to lean over Don’s map. Blue eyes looked up and caught gold ones that were giving him a look of fond exasperation. Mikey just gave a shrug and a half smile. The pace he and Raph had travelled at may have been set by the red banded turtle but Mikey hadn’t protested it which meant as far as he was concerned they were both equally responsible for the lack of ground they had covered.

Don waited for everyone to be settled down around the kitchen table before reporting on his and Leo’s patrol. There hadn’t been many people out on the streets they had watched. Nothing serious had caught their eyes. There had been a few people that had seemed suspicious at first glance but after following them hadn’t been up to anything illegal as far as the turtles could tell.

“We didn’t spot anyone out of place either but we didn’t spend the whole time watching the streets either,” Raph said starting his and Mikey’s report.

Leo’s head snapped up at the last part. “What else did the two of you do while you were on patrol if you weren’t just watching the people out on the streets?”

“Since we didn’t see anything happening on the streets I decided to have us check out the apartment of one of the people that have gone missing to see if we could find any clues as to what had happened,” Raph said. “We made sure that no one was there first and were careful not to leave anything looking out of place after we were done searching. No one will ever know that we were in there.”

“The apartment reminded me of the way Casey used to keep his apartment before he got together with April,” Mikey added in not giving Leo time to jump in and reprimand them. “Things were out of place and messy but it didn’t look like a struggle went on in there. If that guy was kidnapped I don’t think it happened in his apartment.”

“Mikey’s right,” Raph confirmed. “It looked just like a regular old apartment. Nothing really stood out to me as being odd or out of place. Wherever the guy was taken from, it wasn’t his home. There were no signs of a struggle.”

Leo was silent for a minute taking in his brothers’ observations and thinking them over as he gazed down at the map in front of him. Just when Mikey was starting to squirm in his seat waiting for the leader’s reaction Leo gave a firm and decisive nod.

“We were going to have to check around some of the apartments of missing people eventually. I just would have preferred that we had gone into that with more of a plan,” said Leo.

“What’s done is done now though so I’d say we just take the information that we’ve gathered and run with it,” Don put forth his opinion.

The talk about the night and where to go from this point continued on for another half hour. By the time they were finished they were all tired and more than ready to head of to their beds.

Mikey let out a huge yawn as he felt the day’s activities catch up with him and his limbs as well as his eyelids began to feel much heavier than they had just a few minutes prior. In that moment all he wanted was to curl up in bed with his cat and call it a day. As much as Mikey wanted to help the people that had gone missing he was also practical enough to know that there wasn’t anything else they could do tonight without any new information. Instead the best plan of action would be to get a good night’s sleep so that he would be fresh and ready to keep going tomorrow.


	10. Chapter 9

Images of empty streets and rubbish blowing down them filled Mikey’s sleeping mind. There were times that the youngest turtle was unaware that he was dreaming and there were times like this that he was fully aware that he was truly asleep. Usually Mikey’s dreams were a bit more fantastical than empty New York streets but he wasn’t running for his life in the middle of a nightmare so Mikey wasn’t complaining too much.

Hooking his thumbs into his belt Mikey wandered down the streets without fear of being seen. Some instinct of the dream told him that he was alone with no one else around that could possibly mean him harm. Taking a look around it occurred to the turtle that he was back on the street that he and Raph had broken into the apartment on earlier that night. Slowly Mikey came to a stop in front of the building and gazed up at the dark windows up above him.

After only a handful of seconds of staring lights suddenly popped on inside the apartment of the missing man. No shadows of movement appeared inside and somehow Mikey knew that the place was just as empty now as it had been when he and Raph had checked it out before. Just as he was about to walk up to the doorway and make his way inside again to see if his dream would show him something different from his waking mind another light turned on in a building just down the street.

Mikey’s head whipped around to take in the new development in his dream. Tipping his head to the side in confusion Mikey stepped back from the first building and took a few steps down the street towards the new light source. Something inside of him was screaming that this new building was important and he should know why. With every step that he took Mikey searched through his memories to try and figure out what it was about the new building that he should know.

As he went another light turned on a few streets down just barely within his line of sight. It was in that moment that it hit him like a ton of bricks. Every building that had a light turn on was one that had been listed as a residence for one of the missing people when Don had gone through the police cases yesterday after breakfast. Just as that realization came to him the sound of his bedside alarm cut through the dream and pulled the turtle back towards the waking world.

When Mikey woke up to the sound of his alarm it was with half formed plans buzzing about in his head. While his dream itself hadn’t been very enlightening as to what was going on in the city it did give him some ideas as to where he could start trying to find some answers. He was just going to need his brother’s help to get started.

“Hey Don?” Mikey called out as he knocked on the door to the lab and poked his head inside. “Do you have a minute?”

“Sure Mikey. What do you need?” Don said turning away from his computer to face his brother.

Mikey walked into the lab and leaned his hip against Don’s desk by his brother. “I had an idea about keeping track of the people that have disappeared and seeing if we can find anything that connects everyone.”

Don raised an eyebrow, interest clear in his expression. “What do you have in mind?” Don asked leaning forward.

“So I got this idea from a book that I read once. You take a map and used colored dot to represent things like where people live and where they disappear from and any other relevant information to see if there is some kind of pattern. Many it can narrow down our area of patrol so we have a better chance of stopping an abduction in action and tracing that back to the others that have gone missing.

“Even if there isn’t a pattern right away we can still keep track where people have disappeared from and where we should focus our efforts. It can also show us if the area widens or contracts or changes in some way.”

As he talked Mikey watched Don’s expression to try and determine what his more brainy brother thought about what he wanted to do. While each of them did come up with good ideas on a regular basis it was more often Don that had ideas like this and while Mikey was determined to follow through with this one he didn’t want Don to feel like he was stepping on his toes and wanted his brother’s support.

When the small smile began to form on Don’s lips Mikey felt himself relax knowing that his brother at least didn’t have any objections to what he planned on doing.

“That sounds like a good plan Mikey,” said Don as he whirled around in his computer chair and started typing quickly. “I can get you some of the police reports to get started with. I’ll print off the cases that I’m sure are part of this missing persons spree and then widen my search to see if any others belong in the pile for you to add to your map. When your done with these come back and see me to see if I have any more to give you.

Soon enough paper was spitting out of Don’s printer until there was a large stack of missing persons reports for Mikey to go through for his project. With a new map in hand, the first few prints out from Donnie, and multicolored stickers from his art supplies, Mikey took a seat at the kitchen table and began his work.

Taking the print outs Mikey quickly ordered them so that the oldest cases were at the top of the pile and the newest ones were at the bottom until he had them all in chronological order. If there was some kind of pattern in the order in which people were taken Mikey was determined not to miss it just because he went about this all willy nilly.

Once he was happy with the order of the papers Mikey started picking off stickers and placing them onto the map. Red dots indicated where the missing person lived and green dots indicated where they had last been seen before they were reported to the police as being missing. On top of each pair of dots Mikey numbered them in the order in which the person had disappeared. It was going to be a long process but Mikey was hopeful that when he was done something would pop out that could help them find these people and bring them home safely to their families.


	11. Chapter 10

Mikey worked diligently at the kitchen table going through each police report one by one until he had made his way through all of them. Each report had two corresponding dots marked on the map in front of Mikey to show where the missing person had lived and where they had last been seen. Every single one of them had at least one dot inside of the six block diameter and three quarters of them had both dots inside of that same area. Unfortunately for the youngest turtle nothing besides the area of interest was standing out to him and that was something that they had already known about.

With a sigh of frustration Mikey shoved the map across the table away from him so he wouldn’t have to look at it anymore and picked up the reports that Don had printed off. Carefully he flipped through the papers to see if there was anything in the reports themselves that might stand out other than the addresses. Another ten minutes at that and he was about ready to just toss all of the papers up into the air in frustration since nothing was showing up that he could find the least bit of use out of.

Just before Mikey actually followed through with his plan to confetti the room with the papers Raph walked in and proceeded to grab a glass from one of the upper cabinets. Casting his brother a suspicious eyes at the way the youngest was staring at the papers in his hands Raph ran the glass under the cold water of the faucet of the sink before tipping back his head and practically chugging the whole glass in one go.

“What’s up Mikey? Those papers giving you a hard time? Need me to read the big words for you?” Raph teased as he poured himself another glass of water.

Mikey just growled low in his throat beyond frustrated at his own lack of progress at this point and tossed the papers across the table so that they scattered into a disordered mess.

“How are we supposed to help these people if we can’t find out what happened to them?” Mikey ranted, letting his frustrations build up and spill out of his mouth. “We have no idea where they are, who took, why they were taken, or what’s happened to them. We have no idea who might have been kidnapped as part of this spree and who has gone missing as just part of the average crime that is always present in the city. Without knowing any of that how are we supposed to stop more people from disappearing? How are we supposed to protect people like sensei taught us how to do?”

The more Mikey talked the more agitated and distressed his voice became. By the time he was done Mikey had raised his voice nearly to the point of shouting. While the youngest could get excited about nearly anything this kind of reaction was out of the norm for him and had drawn a worried frown onto Raph’s face.

“Hey,” the older ninja said as calmly as he could manage setting down the glass and walking closer to where his brother sat. “It’s gonna be okay Mike.”

Mikey couldn’t stop himself from shaking his head in denial of Raph’s words. He hadn’t known about these people as Leo seemed to have but he didn’t care about them any less than his brother did. It hurt that people seems to be getting hurt and that there didn’t seem to be anything that he could do to stop it or make things better no matter how hard he tried.

Mikey was pulled out of his swirling thoughts when Raph knelt down in front of the chair that he was sitting in and grabbed him by the back of the neck with one hand and forced him to look up into his older brother’s blazing golden eyes.

“You listen to me and you listen good Michelangelo,” Raph growled. “Everything is going to be okay. We are going to find out what’s happening and put a stop to it just like we’ve always done in the past. Nothing is going to stop us and we are going to do everything in our power to make sure that every single person that’s disappeared is returned to their family one way or another.”

Ocean blue eyes met gold as Mikey desperately tried to hold onto the hope that Raph was offering him. While they all knew that Raph was a giant teddy bear on the inside it wasn’t often that he was willing to show it on the outside without one of them being gravely injured and Mikey wasn’t about to say something that would ruin the moment. Instead he just leaned into his brother’s touch and soaked up the comfort that was being offered to him.

“I was thinking anyway,” Raph continued. “Maybe we could get a police scanner from Casey or someone and set that up to listen in on what the cops are doing. Maybe see if we can hear about a kidnapping as it happens and help to stop it some that could be one less person that goes missing. I was gonna head up to Casey’s apartment later tonight and ask him about it. Why don’t you come up with me and we can get that set up together?”

A small smile twisted at the corner of Mikey’s lips as he started to relax again with his brother’s plan in place.

“Yeah I’d like that Raph. Thank you.”

“Any time Mikey. Any time.”

Raph gave Mikey’s neck one more comforting squeeze before letting go knowing that he had done what he could to look after his brother for the moment. As the emerald green turtle walked out of the kitchen Mikey started gathering up the papers that he had tossed to the side and looked down at the map he had worked on. It might be a hard road but the ninja was determined not to give up anytime soon.


	12. Chapter 11

When it was dark enough Mikey and Raph had made their way topside to Casey’s apartment and picked up the police radio scanner that the man had gotten for them. They both knew that Don had the technology to be able to tap into the police database from his computers but with the scanner they could listen to what was happening in real time with the addition of the radio being portable enough for them to take it with them no matter where they went.

As they made their way home Mikey couldn’t help but be drawn to the various Halloween decorations that were becoming more plentiful along the streets below. Nearly every business had something in their storefronts and the majority of apartments that they passed had a variety of decorations adorning their windows. For a few minutes it was like the spirit of the holiday pushed away the dread that had been building up inside of him from the moment Leo had told them all about the disappearances.

It wasn’t very long until there was a noticeable distance that had built up between Mikey and his brother to the point that Raph was three rooftops away and stopped as he waited for the younger ninja to catch up with him.

“What’s the hold up bro?” Raph called out as Mikey closed the distance to just one rooftop between them. “It’s not like you to be this slow out unless something’s bothering you. Are you still upset about the map not helping out as much as you had wanted?”

“No,” Mikey replied as he made the last just to land next to his brother. “I’m actually feeling all right for right now. I was actually just admiring all of the decorations that people have up. You know how much I love Halloween.”

Raph grinned and took a step closer to the edge of the roof to get his own look at the decorations. Black cats and bats and orange pumpkins could be seen littered up and down the street declaring to everyone that saw them that the people inside the buildings were getting into the spooky spirit of the season.

“Yeah you do. It was all of our favorite holiday growing up,” Raph said as he let himself remember the Halloweens from when they were young turtle tots. “It was the one time of year that sensei could bring us topside and not have to worry about someone seeing us and calling the cops as long as he made sure they never got close enough to see that we weren’t actually wearing costumes.”

Mikey gave a matching grin as he relived the memories. “That didn’t stop us from wanting to wear our own costumes just like the human kids got to. Remember how crazy we drove sensei begging him to let up make our own costumes to wear when he took us trick or treating. It didn’t make any sense to us that we couldn’t since everyone else got to. It never really dawned on us how strange it would look to the humans for us to be wearing a costume over a costume.”

They both chuckled as they remembered the arguments they’d had with their father that always ended up with them making something that they could wear over their shells because in the end it was easier for the rat to explain to anyone that asked that his children couldn’t decide what they wanted to be then to continue arguing with four small boys over the logic of wearing addition clothing. Sometimes Mikey wondered just how their father had made it through their childhood with as much sanity as he did.

“We should do something again for Halloween this year,” Mikey thought out loud as his eyes roamed up and down the street trying not to miss any of the decorations that were out. “I know we usually do monster movie marathons and eat a ton of candy but we should dress up and have a party or something. We could invite April and Casey too and see if they’re up for it.”

“You know that actually doesn’t sound like a half bad idea. Good job Mike,” complemented Raph with a teasing waggle of his eye brows.

“I have good ideas all the time,” Mikey insisted drawing himself up to his full height which was still half an inch shorter than his older brother. “You guys just don’t listen to my amazing ideas. If you did than you wouldn’t be so surprised every time I share them with you.”

Raph rolled his eyes in amusement. “Yeah sure. The one about taking two squirt guns and filling one with peanut butter and the other with jelly so that making sandwiches would be cooler was definitely a genius idea that we should be sharing with the masses."

Mikey gave a serious nod though his eyes were twinkling with suppressed mirth. “I’m glad you think so. It’s nice to know that I have at least one brother that appreciates just how hard it is to come up with some of these things.”

Raph just gave one indulgent shake of his head but didn’t make any comment. Giving one last look down at the street the elder turtle motioned for his brother to follow him and proceeded to run and take a flying leap onto the roof of the next building. After five minutes of running Mikey noticed that they weren’t headed towards the manhole that would be the easiest access back to the lair. In fact they weren’t headed in any of their normal patterns to get back to the lair from this part of the city.

“Hey Raph? Where are we going?” Mikey asked though he never stopped following along behind his brother.

“Well you were the one that wanted to throw a party and invite April and Casey,” Raph said over his shoulder. “I just figured that while we were out we could stop by April’s and see if she’d like to come over.”

A wide smile spread over Mikey’s lips as he picked up the pace behind Raph. For all his teasing Mikey knew that his brother would do just about anything to make any of them happy. Family was the most important thing to all of them and there was no doubt in Mikey’s mind that Raph would do anything to keep all of them, including their extended family of April and Casey, safe and happy and throwing a Halloween party definitely fit in with both of those things.


	13. Chapter 12

Ten minutes of running later Mikey and Raph had reached the Second Time Around store. The lights inside the store itself had been turned off and the closed sign was predominately displayed in the window of the door.

Up above the store lights shown out of the windows of April’s apartment showing that she was home for the night and relaxing after her days of work. Despite having been told multiple times by the woman that they were always welcome in her home and to show up whenever they wanted none of the boys wanted to take advantage of their friend’s generosity.

As ninjas it would be child’s play to let themselves in through the kitchen window especially when April often left the window unlocked just for that purpose. There had been quite a few times that the boys had taken their friend up on her silent offer and had managed to scare her when she was unaware of their silent entrance into her home. Now they tried to make a conscious effort to knock on the window first before entering in order to give April some warning that they were coming in.

A quick knock on the window had the redhead looking up from the book she was reading while curled up on her couch. When she recognized the two green faces in her window a smile broke out of her face as she raised a hand to wave the two of them inside.

“Hey guys,” April greeted them as she rose from the couch to go over and give them both quick hugs. “This is a surprise. I wasn’t expecting you. Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine April,” Mikey said as he returned the hug with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. “We just thought we’d stop by on the way home and say hi.”

April continued to smile as she ushered the turtles further into the apartment before making her way to the front windows and pulling the curtains closer. Living on the second floor above her shop April wasn’t concerned about people trying to peer in at her but when her friends came over she preferred not to take the risk that somehow someone might catch a glimpse of them.

“It’s very nice to see you guys. I’m glad you decided to stop by. Were you out on patrol?” April asked as she got comfortable back on her couch as the turtles took their own seats around the room.

“We were in the area and thought we’d stop by and say hello,” answered Raph. “That and Chucklehead over here had an idea while we were out and wanted to run it by you.”

April twisted around to face the younger turtle and give him her full attention. She knew that Mikey could be a little eccentric with the ideas that he came up with and his brothers weren’t always on board with them. The Turtle Titan was one such example of that. Due to that April tried her best to give Mikey her support and encouragement unless she had serious objections to something.

“What did you have in mind Mikey?” asked April.

“Well Raph and I were talking about what we used to do for Halloween when we were little and I wanted to do something special again this year,” Mikey explained. “I thought it might be a good idea to have a Halloween party down in the lair and wanted to know if you would like to come.”

Mikey carefully watched April’s expression as he told her what he had thought about while he and Raph had been out. It wasn’t that he thought she would make fun of him. There was no doubt in Mikey’s mind that April was nicer and had better tack than to do something like that but that didn’t make her opinion any less important to him and he wanted her to be on board with the idea of a party.

“I think that sounds like a wonderful idea Mikey,” April said enthusiastically. “I probably would have just ended up watching Halloween movies here anyway. I party sounds like a much better time.”

“That sounds great April. We’ll get everything set up and you just show up on Halloween,” Raph said not wanting to be cut out of the conversation. “We’ve got to get heading home now or Leo’s going to have a fit about us being out so long without checking in.”

“Hey April,” Mikey said carefully as he thought about what he wanted to say so he wouldn’t risk worrying his friend as he and Raph made their way over to the window. “Have you heard about the people going missing throughout the city?”

April quirked an eyebrow in confusion. “No Mikey I haven’t,” she replied. “What’s going on?”

“Leo’s been reading some reports of people going missing from a concentrated area of the city and Don confirmed that it’s more than the normal crime rate should explain,” Raph cut in quickly. “We’ve been trying to figure out what’s going on and to stop whoever is behind it.”

“That’s why we got the police scanner from Casey so we can try and keep track of things as they’re happening,” Mikey added.

“I can take a look into it too if that will help,” April said, her face taking on a determined expression.

Some of the knots that had constantly been tied in Mikey’s stomach loosened knowing that in addition to the four of them, they now had their two human friends helping them on this case. It opened up a lot more resources that would have proved challenging for them to get on their own.

“Thank you April,” Mikey said as Raph climbed out the window and waited for him on the firescape. “Make sure you take care of yourself too and call us if you get into any trouble or need anything.”

“I will. You two be safe on your way home,” said April.

With one last wave goodbye to their friend Mikey and Raph took off back home to fill their brothers in on everything that had happened since they left earlier that night.


	14. Chapter 13

When Raph and Mikey got back to the lair they found the rest of their family relaxing around the living room each doing their own thing. Master Splinter and Leo were both watching the news while Don had brought his laptop out and was typing away on it. Master’s Splinter’s head came up to look towards the elevator when the doors opened and his sons walked out.

“Hello my son,” Master Splinter greeted as the two walked down into the living area and joined the rest of their family. “I trust your mission was successful.”

“It sure was sensei,” Mikey said as he flopped down onto the couch next to Don earning a reproachful look from the genius. “We got the police scanner from Casey so we can get that set up and start listening in for any information that can help us with these missing people. We also stopped by and saw April on the way home.”

That got enough of Don’s attention to draw his eyes away from the computer screen on his lap. “Do you really need to do that Mikey?” Don asked.

“Nope,” Mikey said making sure to pop the p at the end. “I don’t have to. But what kind of little brother would I be if I didn’t?”

Don raised one eyebrow and stared directly at is younger brother without blinking. At first Mikey just stared back with a wide grin on his face. The more time that passed by without Don blinking the more Mikey’s smile waned until he looked more chagrined. Mikey puffed out his cheeks and stuck out his bottom lip in a pout as he turned his head to the side so he wouldn’t have to keep looking at Don’s unending stare.

“So I was thinking this year we could have a Halloween party like we used to when we were kids. We could have snacks and candy and watch monster movies and everyone could dress up and it would be a lot of fun,” Mikey announced trying to shake off the stare that he could still feel piercing into the side of his head from Don. “I asked April about it when we stopped by her place and she said she’d like to come over. Is that okay with you sensei?”

Master Splinter stroked his chin for a moment as he thought over what a Halloween party in the lair would mean. There was sure to be plenty of roughhousing. Of that he was certain. With the snacks and candy his sons and their friends were sure to eat there was no doubt that no one would be going to bed at anything resembling a decent hour and there would be a good chance their friends would end up spending the night.

Their home had always been open to April and Casey ever since they had invited the two humans into their lives so that was no hardship. While a party most likely would mean that the ninja master wouldn’t be getting a whole lot of sleep given how loud he was sure things would become and the closeness of his bedroom to the living area Master Splinter couldn’t find it in himself to deny his sons this chance to have some fun like normal teenagers would be able to during the holiday.

“I see no reason not to have some fun,” Master Splinter said. “There is one condition that I have however.”

Mikey held his breath while he waited to hear from his dad what he would have to be able to do in order to have the party.

“I will need to be able to sample the candy that you partake in,” their sensei said with a serious face but a laughing twinkle in his eyes. “After all the news has reported quite strongly that parents should check their children’s candy before allowing them to consume it to prevent any tampering of the products that could result in harm.”

A soft laugh came from all four of the turtles as they clearly saw through their father’s desire to just have some sweets.

“Sure thing sensei,” Mikey agreed. “I’ll make sure you have your own bowl to check through for any tampered with candy. You can even taste test some of them as well if you really think they might be dangerous.”

The mood in the room was lightened after that point as the five of them just sat around talking and listening to the news reports. It was when Mikey got up to go and get himself something to drink that it changed slightly for the youngest.

“By the way Mikey, I meant to say something earlier. I have some more missing people reports to give to you so you can add them to the map that you were making,” Don said.

What do you mean you have new reports Mikey asked feeling his heart sink in his chest at the thought of more people having disappeared between when he last got reports from Don to start the map and right now. How could you have more in such a short amount of time?

“More people haven’t gone missing Mikey,” Leo cut in quickly to try and assure his brother when he noticed the despair creeping in on Mikey’s face. “We just thought of checking other police districts to see if they had any information that we might have missed previously.”

“Apparently the area where people are going missing is right between two different police districts that cut through the city. So while most of the reports have gone into one of them, which is where I printed them off from to give to you, not all of them have," Don explained. "So when I took a closer look I noticed where the district dividing line was and decided to check it out and see if there was anything else I could dig up and printed these off to give to you.”

Mikey didn't know whether or not to feel a sense of relief at his brother's words. On the one hand more people hadn't disappeared while he was busy planning a party but on the other hand that was still more people missing overall. Even with the good news that no one had been taken recently it still sucked that there were even more people gone than they had thought originally.

“Thanks Don. I’ll add those to my map and see if anything new pops up to me,” said Mikey.

As Don went back to his work on his laptop Mikey leaned back into the couch cushions and let his mind wander. The new additions he would make to his map might help take them forward or it might result in absolutely nothing and they would remain right where they are right now with no leads and no direction to take. It was slowly but surely becoming increasingly frustrating and at this point Mikey wasn’t sure just how much more he would take of this without going crazy.


	15. Chapter 14

Mikey nearly sighed out loud as he sat back down at the kitchen table with the map that he had made earlier and the new missing persons reports that Don had printed out for him. It had been hard enough the first time looking at the pictures of people that had disappeared from the streets of New York without letting it get too him too much. Now he had to do it all over again because there were even more of them than they had thought at first.

Carefully Mikey did the same thing he had done last time and put all of the reports into chronological order so that he wouldn't miss anyone and might see a pattern in there. One by one each new person got their own stickers at both the place where they lived and the place where they were last seen before they disappeared. Most of the stickers that Mikey put on the map fell within the area that they had been looking through earlier that week but a few were outside of it as well.

The stickers that fell outside of the main search area didn't stand out to Mikey too much. Most of the area was residential which meant that anyone that had been taken on their way to or from work would almost certainly have that sticker outside of the six block diameter. The thing that really stuck out to Mikey however was how all of the stickers that indicated where people lived seemed to revolve around in a circle.

There was no doubt to the youngest ninja that with such a small area there were bound to be geometric patterns that popped up out of sheer coincidence and lack of other available options. The more he looked at the map though the more something niggled in the back of Mikey's mind. The numbers that he had written on the stickers to order the reports danced back and forth across the area with no discernible rhyme or reason. There was something there though. Mikey was sure of it. Something that he wasn't seeing that he just knew was important and he needed to see.

Taking the edges of the map itself Mikey slowly spun it around on the table so that he could look at it from different angles hoping that might give him a new perspective. Just as he had turned the paper three quarters of the way around it hit him like a freight train. The numbers were in the wrong order.

When Mikey had put the stickers of for this new batch of reports he had started the numbering right after the last one that he had done for the first batch but that wasn't right. Some of these new reports had happened before the other ones making his current numbering wrong.

Jumping up from the table Mikey quickly ran into Don's lab where he had given back the reports before he and raph had left earlier that night and grabbed them before rushing back out into the kitchen. Laying everything out on the table, Mikey grabbed a pen and forced himself to slow down and take a look at everything in front of him.

Methodically Mikey started working his way through every report and renumbering the stickers as he went to put all of them in chronological order. When he was done Mikey took a new look at the map in front of him and the pen fell out of his fingers in shock.

“Leo! Don! Raph!” Mikey yelled hoarsely, his throat clenching as he tried to process what he was seeing. “I think you guys need to come in here and see this.”

Looking down at the map Mikey stared at the message whoever was responsible for all of this had left them.


	16. Chapter 15

Mikey's shouts brought his brothers rushing into the kitchen to see what was going on. In their lives one could never afford to ignore a yell for a brother the way that Mikey had.

"Mikey what is it?" Leo demanded looking around the room to see what it was that had gotten his brother to react the way that he had.

Mikey pointed down to the map that was still sitting innocently on the kitchen table. "I think I found something big on the map that I made. Take a look and tell me what you guys think."

Together Leo, Raph, and Don circled the table so that they could each look at what had gotten Mikey so agitated without blocking the view of anyone else. It only took a few seconds for them to scan over the work that Mikey had done and see exactly what had made him call them all in for.

On the map, the stickers that Mikey had noticed before that seemed to consistently encircle the area that they had been searching over stood out immediately to the other three turtles. The stickers that marked where the people had last been seen didn’t matter much. It was the stickers showing where the people lived that stood out. The thing that really set them apart from just random spots were the order in which they encircled the area.

Looking at the numbers that Mikey had written on the stickers the pattern shown out like a beacon. The first missing person lived right at the edge of the area and with every increase in number, the stickers circled around getting tighter and tighter as they went forming an almost spiral appearance. Each new person that disappeared brought the spiral in tighter and tighter.

“Oh shell,” Don said under his breath as his eyes scanned over the paper over and over again as though trying to find a different solution than the one that was staring them in the face.

“Are you serious Mikey?” Raph asked looking up at his brother. “Are you sure you got everything in the right order? There any chance you made a mistake somewhere?”

Mikey shook his head in denial. “I double checked all the dates to go with the numbers between all of the reports from the two districts that Don gave me. There’s no mistake.”

“This is definitely not something that we would have considered before. Great work Mikey,” Leo said. “Don, how is it that we’ve noticed this but the police haven’t?”

Don rubbed at his chin as he thought over the question. “There could be a variety of reasons for that. I think a big part of it might be that the disappearances occur over two separate districts and if they aren’t regularly sharing this information back and forth it could slip through the cracks. We didn’t even notice it when Mikey made the map with only one district’s reports.”

“What are we going to do now Leo?” Raph asked looking at the leader for a sign as to what their next step should be. “This gives us more clues but it still don’t tell us who to go out and punch in the face.”

“I think our next move should be to research this area and find out what’s so important about the center since that seems to be the direct that all of this is headed in. Don can do that research tomorrow after practice if he doesn’t have anything more important on his to do list,” Leo said looking at his younger brother and receiving a nod of agreement in return. “Than depending what he finds we can develop a plan to go out on patrol. Now that we have this map we can make a more educated guess as to where to look for those that are next to be taken and better protect them.”

“It’s a starting point,” Mikey agreed with relief creeping into his voice. “We may not know who to punch in the face just yet but we just got one step closer to finding out.”


	17. Chapter 16

The conversation in the kitchen didn’t last too much longer after Leo laid out the bones of a plan before the four of them separated and headed off to bed. As Mikey made his way up the stairs to the second level he was a bit surprised to see Don turning out the lights and following the rest of them up to bed.

Normally after having been given such a big breakthrough on a mission they were working on he could barely be dragged from from his lab to eat or sleep or do anything that didn’t have to do with what he was working on. The fact that he wasn’t doing just that boggled Mikey but it was late and Mikey was too tired to really think too deeply about it. Besides, Don taking better care of himself and getting some much needed sleep was a good thing. They’d have plenty of time tomorrow to research and plan.

With that Mikey went into his room, closing the door to the world outside those four walls, and crawled into bed and fell into a dreamless sleep. The youngest turtle stayed cocooned in his blankets until late the next morning when the alarm roused him from his slumber.

This time Mikey was quick to get up and head down to the kitchen to prepare a light breakfast before morning practice. With all the work that Don had been doing to help to try to find out what had happened to the missing people he hadn’t gotten around to finishing up the space heaters and the kitchen had always been one of the warmest places in the lair with the heat that the stove and oven put out when in use.

It didn’t take Mikey more than a few minutes to whip up some scrambled eggs and make some coffee for his brothers. One by one the rest of them joined him as they partook in the morning meal. The rest of the morning passed in a fairly relaxed manner. Practice was easier than normal with Master Splinter having them focus more on forms and balance than sparring or weapons.

While Mikey knew his father likes to mix up their training so that they wouldn’t become too used to any one thing or to lack in any other regard he wasn’t sure what had prompted such an easy practice today. That was at least until he saw Don heading for his lab to research what could possibly be drawing the kidnapper toward the center of the hunting grounds and realized that Leo had probably talked to their father earlier that morning and he had wanted Don have have more energy to put towards solving this problem.

With nothing better to do after practice Mikey decided to head back up to his room and pull out his art supplies. If they were going to have a Halloween party than there would need to be decorations and he was going to need an awesome costume that would blow everyone else’s out of the water.

The rest of the days passed very quickly was Mikey barely any the wiser for it. The only breaks he took were to grab a sandwich for lunch and to use the bathroom. Even Klunk’s insistence on personally examining every item that Mikey created was only a minor notice to put anything with paint on it outside of his pet’s reach.

By the time dinner rolled around Mikey’s stomach was protesting its need for food and the youngest really hoped that someone else had made the meal since he felt like if he didn’t get something to eat right now he’d just start gnawing off his own arm. Luckily for the sea green turtle the smell of spaghetti and meatballs wafted up to his nose as soon as he left his room and he didn’t even bother with the stairs as Mikey leapt straight from the second floor down to the first.

“It is good to see you out of your room Michelangelo,” Master Splinter said as Mikey came into the kitchen and took his place at the table. “You are not often the one I have to send someone to hunt down to be sure you are not late for our family meal.”

Mikey noticed the slight flush across Don’s cheeks as the comment had clearly been about him and how often they all but had to drag him out of his lab to eat. The embarrassment didn’t however stop the genius from digging into the meal with just as much gusto as the rest of them were doing.

“I might get caught up in my work every now and again,” Don said trying to defend himself. “But you have to admit that what I do is worth it.”

“Nothing is worth the health of one of my sons,” Master Splinter admonished gently.

“You were out here on time tonight though genius so does that mean you didn’t find anything useful?” Raph asked through a mouthful of food.

Don pushed some of the spaghetti around as he searched for one of the meatballs as he answered, “Yes and no. I did find what’s at the center of that spiral inwards but it’s not a whole lot. It’s mostly just old apartment buildings. At lot of them are actually abandoned now due to neglect and being deemed unsafe for residence. The buildings that are occupied around there are mostly low income housing.”

Mikey asked the question they all wanted to know at that point. “Do you think the abandoned buildings are where the kidnapper is keeping all of the people?”

Don shook his head. “I don’t think so. With the number of people that have gone missing, even if you account for those that might have possibly left on their own, that’s just too many to hide in one place without drawing attention to it. In fact that’s what makes all of this so difficult. There are few places that you could keep that many people all together without anyone else noticing or all of the missing people banding together to put up a fight.”

“Either way,” Leo said as he started to plan with this new information. “It’s still a lead that we need to check out. After dinner Don can make a list of the buildings that are abandoned and we can do so recon on patrol. We don’t want to go rushing in if there’s a chance that no one is in there and we’ll just get hurt due to their neglected state. If there is someone in danger we’ll act but tonight will be more about gathering more information. We’ll leave in two hours.”

Mikey quietly act the rest of his dinner as his thoughts whirled around in his head. While he knew that they needed as much information as they could get so they could do this mission as safely as possible he also didn’t want to be too late to help the next person in trouble. Maybe if there wasn’t much to see at the buildings tonight he might suggest to Leo they scope out how might be a possible next target. Regardless, at least they were moving in the right direction now.


	18. Chapter 17

Two hours after dinner found all four of the turtles back on the rooftop that they had started on two nights ago. It was the edge of the affected area right by the apartment of the first disappearance.

“Alright so here’s what we’re going to do,” Leo said going over the game plan for the night. “We head into the center of the affected area and check out the abandoned buildings. If we see anything suspicious then we’ll investigate but for right now we’re just trying to find out what is so important about the center of the kidnapping spiral.”

Raph looked like he wanted to argue about the lack of action but couldn’t actually think of a better idea to put forward. Instead he just pursed his lips into a thin line and tried to glare a hole into the roof they were standing on. Mikey noticed Leo give their more hotheaded brother a glance before determinedly nodding his head and leading them towards the center of the spiral.

They were quick and silent as they jumped from roof to roof making sure that no one on the ground noticed their travels. This had been their highway ever since they were allowed to go topside and they knew it well. It was only a ten minute journey before Leo had them slowing down for Don to join him in the lead and point out exactly which buildings he had looked up during his research.

Just as he had done before Don took over for Leo seamlessly and pointed out exactly where they needed to be. Without hesitation Don brought them to the first abandoned apartment building and stopped.

“This is the oldest of the three according to what I could find in the city records for building permits,” Don told them as they all looked over the place. “This city had it condemned due to structural issues five years ago and the owner put it on the market but no one ever seemed to be interested in buying it so he just left it here to rot. There used to be a problem with squatters trying to live in there but eventually the city forced the owner to have the bars placed on the windows to deter that after too many people ended up in the hospital from injuries they received in the building.”

“So would you say the bars would be a good way of keeping people locked inside as well as keeping them out?” Mikey thought out loud.

Don started to shake his head but stopped as he thought about it. “I suppose having the the bars already on the windows and not having to add them after the fact of kidnapping people would prove to be convenient but given how unsafe it is inside I highly doubt that this is a place where people are being kept hostage and the fact that no one seems to want anything to do with the building leads me to believe that it’s an unlikely target for being whatever the criminal behind all of this is getting at.”

“I agree,” Leo said. “Take us to the next one.”

The next building proved to be only a few alleyways over. It was in pretty much the same condition as the first. The only difference was the thick chains that locked the front doors shut.

The third abandoned apartment building was in slightly better condition than the first two. It lacked the bars and chains that they others had prominently displayed. That in and of itself was enough to make them take notice.

“What do we do now” Raph asked turning his head in Leo’s direction. “This one people can get in and out of without being noticed if they play their cards right.”

“Well take a closer look but from the outside,” Leo decided. “I don’t want anyone going in half cocked and getting hurt or blowing our cover if their is someone inside there. If there is anyone in there we also don’t know if they have anything to do with the kidnappings if they’re just homeless and looking for some shelter.”

With that in mind the four of them crept closer until they could get a better look at the building. Some of the outside stonework was beginning to crumble apart giving the place a falling down appearance. The windows, while not having bars on them, were clouded with old dust and cobwebs that made it nearly impossible to see clearly inside of most of them.

No lights shone out of any of the windows and no shadows passed over them to give indication of anyone moving around inside. For half an hour the turtles held position and watched the building but nothing happened. None of the handful of people that walked by on the street even gave the place a passing glance. The building was well and truly abandoned. It certainly gave Mikey a creepy vibe.

“Well this was a giant waste of time,” Raph complained. “There’s nothing here. Maybe it’s just a coincidence that they buildings are at the center of the spiral. Maybe they have nothing to do with what’s going on.”

“Raph could be right,” Don reluctantly agreed. “There doesn’t seem to be anything indicating that there is anything important about any of these buildings.”

“Alright,” Leo said with just a hint of a sigh in his voice. “We’ll call it a night and head home. Maybe we can find something else tomorrow and come up with a new plan.”

Turning their back on the abandoned building they started on their way home. Mikey couldn’t stop the swell of disappointment inside of him that what had seemed to be their best lead going up in smoke. Something inside of him couldn’t shake the feeling that they needed to find out what was going on soon as something bad was going to happen. What exactly that was he didn’t know but he also wasn’t in a hurry to find out.


	19. Chapter 18

As they were running home Mikey thought back to his idea about scoping out the area of the next possible target. Since they were still topside and they hadn’t found anything useful at the abandoned buildings now seemed like the perfect time to go take a look. Without breaking his stride Mikey spoke up and explained that idea to his brothers drawing them to a stop.

Mikey noticed Leo tense ever so slightly at the suggestion. The sea green turtle knew that Leo was the one that made the majority of the plans for a reason but this wasn’t something that he wanted to back down on.

“I know it’s a long shot. I really do but it can’t hurt,” Mikey hurried on. “There’s still plenty of night left and I know it’s getting late but I really feel strongly about this.”

Mikey knew that the look he was giving Leo was probably just shy of begging and for once he didn’t mean to be manipulative about it but he really did feel strongly about this. If there was a way to use what they knew about the people already missing to help those that might be left then they had to try. If that meant Mikey had to go off on his own to do this than that was exactly what he would do but at the same time he would feel a lot better about it if he had at least one of his brothers watching his shell.

All of that must have been clear on his face because it only took Leo another few seconds to relax.

“Okay Mikey,” agreed Leo. “Raph and Don will keeping heading home and you and I will go take a look around 

If they were going to try and find out where the next person to be taken lived than Mikey figured the best place to start would be at the home of the last victim. Having spent so much time creating the map that revealed the spiral pattern in the first place Mikey knew exactly where to go and Leo followed right on his heels.

They had been about two blocks away from the last victim’s home when they had split up so it didn’t take them very long to find a rooftop from an adjacent building that they could observe the place from. Even though this neighborhood wasn’t far from the abandoned buildings that they had come out to do their information gathering on, the area they were in now was significantly nicer.

There didn’t appear to be anything structurally wrong or neglected about any of the apartments in this neighborhood and none of the windows had any bars on them. All in all it seemed like a pleasant and overall safe place to live.

“The last person to be taken was a twenty-seven year old woman,” Mikey said as he settled down where he wouldn’t be seen to watch the apartment across the street. “She lived on the third floor. She was reported missing when she didn’t show up to work for two days without calling out. The police searched her place but couldn’t find any sign of forced entry or that anyone had made her leave her apartment against her will. She just vanished.”

“There’s a good chance that she was probably taken between here and her work in that case,” Leo surmised. “She left to go to work one morning and was kidnapped on her way so there wouldn’t be any signs of a struggle in the apartment.”

Mikey was just about to say something else when something caught his eyes and his head whipped around to get a better look. A light had come on in one of the windows on the third floor giving a clear view of a man and a woman entering the apartment. Mikey stared at them as they closed the door behind them and set about making themselves at home the way only people who have repeat such actions a hundred times over could do.

“What’s going on?” Mikey asked. “What are they doing in that missing woman’s apartment?”

“Maybe they’re her roommates?” Leo suggested, his voice a little tight as he watched just as closely.

Mikey shook his head at that. “No. I read over the police reports when I was making the map. She lives alone and doesn’t have any family living in the city. Neither of those two look like her so I don’t think they’re related and they look way too at home in there.”

“I don’t know how to explain it,” said Leo.

“If that woman doesn’t live here than what was with the police report?” Mikey continued. “What’s going on here?”


	20. Chapter 19

Five minutes passed as the two ninjas stared intently into the apartment across the street from them.

“Leo, what’s going on?” Mikey asked. “How come there are people living here when the apartment should be empty?”

“I don’t know Mikey,” Leo said carefully. “Maybe the police wrote down the address on the report wrong or someone copied it wrong. This could all have a very simple explanation.”

Mikey frowned at that. While it was true that often enough the most simple explanation was the right one something still didn’t feel right about this. He didn’t know what it was but something was just very off about this situation. Standing up from where he had been crouched down Mikey turned on his heels, ignoring Leo as he typed out something on his shell cell, and took a running start before jumping over to the neighboring roof.

The youngest started off just slow enough for Leo to see what he was doing and catch up to him. There was a definite purpose to his steps and he knew exactly where he was headed. Luckily he didn’t have to wait very long as the destination wasn’t too far away. That was the one nice thing about the spiraling pattern on the map. It didn’t take too long to travel between the different homes of the victims.

Five minutes of running had Mikey and Leo standing on the fire escape of the second to last missing person’s apartment. This one was almost a woman but she was in her seventies and lived alone. However what the two turtles saw when they peered inside of the window wasn’t the apartment of an elderly woman.

Instead there were five college aged young men all sitting together around a television and cheering on whatever it was they were watching.

“I suppose the police just made a mistake about this address as well Leo?” Mikey asked sarcastically as he made his way back up to the roof so they wouldn’t be spotted by any of the men. “This doesn’t make any sense. There’s no way the police would be this sloppy over two separate missing persons investigations. And I really don’t think those guys have a seventy year old roommate.”

“You’re right Mikey but I don’t know what to tell you,” Leo said carefully. “I know just as much about this as you do.”

“Did you and Donnie see anything suspicious like this the first night we went on patrol and split up?” asked Mikey.

Leo shook his head in denial. “No, there was nothing like this at all. Neither of us went looking into people’s apartments like you and Raph did though so we wouldn’t have seen anything even if there was something there.”

Before Mikey could say anything else Leo’s shell cell started ringing in his belt drawing both turtles’ attention to it. Leo was quick to pick up the device and answer it placing it on speaker before anyone else could hear the ringing and be altered to their presence.

“Leo here,” Leo said quickly.

“Leo,” Don’s voice sounded out of the speakers. “We’ve got a problem.”


	21. Chapter 20

Mikey couldn’t help but freeze at his older brother’s words. Problems for them were never small ones. Especially when they were dealing with something this big and it just kept getting more complicated as it went.

“What’s the problem Don? Are you and Raph okay?” Leo asked, his leader voice firm as he listened carefully for any response.

“We’re fine Fearless,” Raph sounded from the other end. “We’re not the problem though. Casey was listening to the police scanner for us while we were on patrol so we didn’t miss anything important and he just called us. Someone’s just been grabbed.”

If Mikey thought he had felt frozen before it was like his blood had turned to ice now. Someone else had just become a victim of whatever monster was stealing people away and they hadn’t been able to stop them. They had been out on the streets and it hadn’t even been enough.

“Mikey!” Leo’s shout broke through the spinning thoughts in the younger turtle’s head. “We have to go. We’re going to meet up with Raph and Don, regroup, and see if we’re not too late to track down this creep.”

Mikey gave one short, sharp nod and followed behind as Leo took a running leap off the side of the building and headed to the meetup point with their brothers. They were both aware that with someone having just been taken that time was now of the essence. Together they both pushed their legs to take them as rapidly as possible over the roofs and to where their brother were waiting for them.

Even moving as fast as they could go it still took time to reach their brothers. Mikey wasn’t sure if it had only been minutes or if hours had passed but finally he could see his two brothers come into sight just a few rooftops away. Putting out one last burst of speed Mikey made his way to Raph and Don with Leo coming up just behind him. As much as he wanted to just keep going Mikey’s body begged for a slight rest as he panted trying to catch his breath.

“What do you have?” Leo demanded, taking charge now that they were all back together again.

“Casey has been keeping an ear on the police scanner for us while we waited and sending up updates as he gets them. I’ve been tracking the most likely routes that they would be taking given the traffic and other variables,” Don replied.

Mikey stood up straighter having calmed down again. “So what are we waiting for?”

“We were waiting on you slowpokes,” said Raph.

“Enough,” Leo said ending the argument before it could begin. “Don where are we headed?”

“East,” was Don’s only response as the headed for the edge of the roof and took off.

There was no hesitation as the rest of them followed behind Don. As they ran Mikey kept casting his eyes down at the streets below looking for any vehicle that seemed out of place or like it might be the one that they were searching for to try and save the kidnapping victim.

It wasn’t until they were a block away from where they had met up and were drawing nearer to the buildings that they had been watching earlier that night that Mikey realized he didn’t even know what type of car that he should be looking for. He didn’t even know if it was even a car or truck, make or model, color or any other kind of identification.

Just when he was about to open his mouth to ask as his brothers for that relevant information or to wonder why Leo hadn’t bothered to ask it himself a loud, piercing scream shot through the night chilling Mikey’s blood in his veins.

Dead ahead, right in the direction the scream had come from was the last abandoned apartment building that they had looked at before calling it a night and heading home. Now Mikey sorely wished that they had taken a closer look so that maybe this wouldn’t be happening now.

Mikey pursed his lips and focused on running towards the building as fast as his legs could carry him. Wishing to have done something different in the past would be a waste of time. There was nothing that they could do to change what had already happened. All he could do now was to get to the building as fast as he could and hope that would be enough to prevent any more bad from happening in the future.


	22. Chapter 21

As they got closer to the apartment building Leo raised a hand and brought them to a halt on the roof that they had been on just hours earlier. Mikey couldn’t see any sign of the car that they had been chasing but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. It had a large head start on them and could already have been hidden before they reached the building.

The scream that they had heard left little doubt in his mind that this was the place that they needed to search and he was just twitching to get inside and stop whatever nutjob thought that they could go around terrorizing the city.

“What’s the plan Leo,” Mikey asked as he leaned closer to the roof’s edge as he longed to pull a Raph and just barge on in.

“We do this smart,” Leo said, placing a hand on Mikey’s shoulder as though knowing what it was his youngest brother wanted to do. “We find an access in from the roof and work our way down the building floor by floor. We stay quiet and keep to the shadows. No taking off on your own. We work together as a team and end this tonight.”

Leo waited to receive a nod of understanding from each of his brothers before releasing Mikey’s shoulder and motioning for them to make the jump from their building to the apartment. Barely a whisper of a thump told the world that four large turtles had landed on the roof of a long forgotten building before they were already fading back into the shadows.

Don immediately started scanning the area for any surveillance that might give away their position while Raph headed right over to the door that gave the residences access to the rooftop. Mikey stayed hot on Raph’s heels trusting Leo to have Don’s back and not wanting to wait any longer than he had to in order to get into the building.

The door was locked but Raph was the best of them at picking locks and had it open in the blink of an eye. By the time the door was easing slowly open to avoid any squeaking from rusty hinges giving away their position Leo and Don had joined them and they were making their way slowly inside the building and down the stairs.

A find layer of dust covered nearly every surface showing that whoever had been using this place for their nefarious purposes obviously hadn’t come up to the roof and probably weren’t expecting anyone to come down from their either. Slowly they made their way single file down the stairs making sure to step right in each other’s footprints so that if anyone came up from behind them than they would have disguised their numbers and could potentially catch their adversaries by surprise.

At the bottom of the stairs was a long hallway with five doors on each side leading off. These were the top apartments of the long ago tenants that used to stay here. Every door was closed with dust and cobwebs covering the handles, hinges, and carpet in front of them. It was clear that no one had been up to this floor in a long time as none of the turtles planned on taking any chances.

They had no idea who they were facing and what kind of training they might have. Ninjas knew how to cover their tracks and it wouldn’t be unheard of to make a place look uninhabited just to throw off an enemy. A quick glance at Leo had the turtles splitting up, two to each side of the hallway, to check the doors and the rooms beyond.

Leo and Raph headed to the left while Mikey and Don took the right. Starting at the end closest to the staircase that they had come down from Mikey tried the doorknob and unsurprisingly found it to be locked. Quickly he pulled out a set of lockpicks and made fast work of the obstacle.

Don was the first one to enter the old apartment keeping himself crunched down slightly to make less of a target of himself if someone proved to actually be inside. Mikey stayed up a little higher than his brother to make sure to be able to cover Don’s blind spots just as he knew his older brother was doing for him.

On the other side of the door was an apartment that was little bigger than a shoebox. The kitchen and living area were one giant space that couldn’t have been more than twenty square feet altogether. Two doors branched off the main area. One window along the side wall and another through one of the doors was all the light there was in the apartment giving them just enough to see be but no more lending an eerie feeling to the place.

One was a bathroom barely large enough to hold a toilet, sink, and stand up shower. The other door was what could only generously be called a bedroom. Mikey’s wasn’t even completely sure that a full sized bed would have enough room to fit given how closed in the walls felt. He couldn’t imagine who would want to live in a place like this. Sure he loved down in the sewers but he was pretty sure Don’s lab by itself was bigger than this whole place was.

A quick glance over at Don told the youngest that his brother hadn’t found anymore than he had. Not wanting to waste anymore time than they already had Mikey made his way out of the apartment and down to the next door on their side of the hallway. Looking over at the other side Mikey could tell that their two oldest brothers were already onto the second apartment on their side as well.

Mikey took a deep breath to try and keep himself calm as he picked the lock for the next apartment. If the rest were anything like the first then it wouldn’t take them too long to clear this floor and move on to the next one. The faster they could go the better as far as the youngest was concerned. He was more than ready for all of this to be over with.


	23. Chapter 22

Mikey and Don made their way into the next apartment on their side of the building just as they had with the first. Don went in low while Mikey covered the higher ground. Just because the first one had been empty didn’t mean that they could be lazy or careless and assume that the rest would be as well. Doing that would be an easy way to get themselves hurt or worse.

The high level of stealth proved to be unnecessary however when the second apartment proved to be just as empty as the first one was. The only difference between the two that Mikey could see right off was that it was darker than the first.

Where the first apartment that they had searched had a window in the main living and kitchen area this one did not. It took Mikey a moment to realize that since this apartment was in the middle of the building it only had one wall with access to the outside with its other side walls being shared with the apartments on either side.

Mikey couldn’t help the shudder that ran through him at the thought. While he knew that some people didn’t have the financial security to live in a better place than the former landlord had obviously been renting here Mikey still couldn’t imagine having to call a place like this home. It felt far too closed in and made him feel trapped just searching through the place for any clues as to where the person who had screamed and clearly needed their help was.

Don had barely given him a hand signal to show that he hadn’t spotted anything before Mikey was rushing back out into the hallway. It was no secret that the youngest didn’t like closed in spaces and Don gave him a questioning look as he joined his little brother.

“I’m fine,” Mikey whispered making sure that his voice only travelled to Don’s ears and no further. “I’m good. Really. Let’s just keep going. We need to find these people.”

Don gave Mikey one last long look to make sure that his younger brother was telling the truth before nodding and moving on to the next door. Mikey shuddered again at the thought of going into another apartment that was barely bigger than a shoebox but kept pace right behind Don. He wasn’t about to let any of his brothers face this danger alone just because he didn’t like the small apartments.

This third and fourth apartments were just as tiny and dark as the second one was and Mikey was even more eager to get out of them by the time they were done searching as he had been before. Looking across the hallways Mikey could see that their brothers appeared to already be searching the last apartment on their side of the hallways and knew they had to pick up the pace without being sloppy.

Time was not on their side and they couldn’t afford to waste any of it. Just like the past four times Don was the first one into the apartment. Like the one on the other end this one had two windows and provided just a bit more light. While Mikey looked over the kitchen and into the bathroom Don searched through the bedroom to see if anyone was hiding there and being kept there against their will.

Finding nothing that could tell him what was going on in the building Mikey came back out into the living area to check with Don. When he didn’t see the olive green turtle Mikey poked his head into the bedroom wanting to see if his brother had found something in there. That idea proved to be fruitless when he bedroom was just as empty as it had been when they first came into the apartment.

Mikey couldn’t stop himself from grumbling under his breath at Don having left the apartment to check in with their brothers without waiting for him. Not only had Mikey waited for Don each time before leaving despite how much he had wanted to get out of each previous apartment, he couldn’t help but think what if he had found something in the bathroom and needed the backout. That was why Leo had them do this in pairs after all.

Stalking out into the hallways Mikey was prepared to give Don a piece of his mind for ditching him like that just to see only Leo and Raph waiting for him in the hallways. That brought Mikey up short and a frown to form on his face. Something wasn’t right here.

“Where’s Don?” Mikey asked the other two as he looked up and down the hallway as though Don would just appear out of thin air.

“What do you mean where’s Don?” Raph asked back. “He was with you.”

Mikey shook his head, fear beginning to pool in his stomach. “We went into the apartment together but he wasn’t there when I came out of searching the bathroom. I figured he came out here with you guys before me. You didn’t see him?”

Raph’s hands clenched around his sais as he pushed passed Mikey and into the apartment that he had just come out of. Leo and Mikey were hot on Raph’s heels and it didn’t take more than thirty seconds for the three of them to check everywhere in the tiny apartment and find no sign of their brother. Donatello had vanished.


	24. Chapter 23

“What the hell?” Raph snarled as he spun around looking everywhere again as though they could have somehow missed a giant turtle in the tiny apartment. “Where the fuck is he?”

“Calm down Raph,” Leo ordered though it was clear from his voice that he was just as worried as his younger brother.

Raph rounded on the leader and snarled back. “Don’t tell me to calm down Fearless. Something’s happened to Don and I want to know what it was right now. Where the shell were you when he disappeared Mikey?”

Mikey took a step back from Raph’s anger knowing that having a brother hurt was a surefire way to piss Raph off and send him into a rage. “I was searching the bathroom and he searched the bedroom. It was what we did for each of the other apartments. There isn’t enough space for both of us in either room so we split up to cover more ground.”

Raph growled and kicked at the bottom cabinets in the kitchen space. Mikey turned to face Leo, his face pleading for the leader to understand.

“We were only separated for like a minute at most,” Mikey said. “There’s no way someone got in here and grabbed him without me noticing. That’s why I thought he must have gone out into the hallways with you guys. Is there anyway he could have gone out there before you two did and you just missed him somehow?”

Leo shook his head. “We were out there for about a minute before you came out. Unless Don came right out when you started to search and you didn’t notice there’s no way that we wouldn’t have seen him come out.”

“He’s got to be somewhere Leo,” growled Raph. “Don didn’t just up and vanish into thin air. Something happened to him and we’ve got to find out where he is.”

“I’m not saying we won’t Raph,” Leo snapped back. “I want to find him just as much as you do but we have to be smart about it. We don’t know what happened or where he went but there’s a good chance he’s still somewhere in this building.

“The only way out that we’ve seen so far would be through one of the windows or out the way we came in through the roof. There’s no way those windows are up to code so they’re too small for him to have gotten through and he never went passed up to get back to the roof. Don wouldn't’ have just run out on us without saying something to one of us first so it stands to reason he’s still in the building and we will find him.”

Mikey could see the frustration and helpless look on Raph’s face and knew that he probably shared a similar one. He was the one that had been paired with Don to watch his back and he had failed. Something had happened to his brother on his watch and now it wasn’t just humans that had gone missing. Their brother had as well and they wouldn’t rest until they found him again.

“If he’s still somewhere in the building than we need to keep searching,” Mikey spoke up. “We need to keep searching until we find him Leo.”

“We will Mikey,” Leo assured. “We won’t give up until we’ve gotten him back so let’s go.”

Raph was out the door before Leo even finished speaking making his way to the stairwell at the end of the hallway. Taking hold of the knob Raph wrenched the door open ignoring the screech of rusted out hinges and started down before coming to a stop so fast that Mikey and Leo couldn't stop themselves from running into his shell.

“What’s the holdup Raph?” Mikey asked trying to push passed his brother.

Raph stepped to the side and raised one hand to point at the wall across from the door they had just walked through. When Mikey saw what his brother was pointing at his blood went cold and he had to grab onto Raph’s shoulder to keep himself from sinking to the floor as his legs turned to overcooked noodles.

On the wall was a crude painting in red of a turtle with a knife skewering it through the middle. As if the painting itself wasn’t horrifying enough the scent that permeated the air was what really twisted Mikey up inside. Blood was a smell that they were all unfortunately familiar with and there was no doubt to Mikey that was what he was smelling right now.

Leo carefully pushed his brothers to the side and stepped forward to run his fingers over the painting. Mikey’s breath shuddered as Leo’s fingers smudged the grotesque mockery of artwork and came back coated in red.

“It’s just barely beginning to get tacky,” the leader said as he pulled a cloth out of his belt to wipe his fingers clean on. “That means that it’s still fairly fresh. Whoever made this didn’t do it that long ago so they’re still around here somewhere.”

“Is that,” Mikey started but had to swallow down the bile that was rising in his throat. “Is that Don’s blood?”

“There’s no way to know for certain,” said Leo. “We can’t jump to any conclusions.”

Raph growled and shoved his way back to the front and marched down the stairs. “Like shell we can’t. Some sicko took our brother, hurt him, and painted that in his blood. I don’t know about you but I’m not waiting around to find out what else they’re going to do to Don. I’m finding him now.”

With that Raph marched down the remaining stairs and pushed his way through the stairwell door onto the next floor. Mikey and Leo exchanged a look before hurrying after their brother. They both wanted to get Don back just as bad but they knew if they weren’t careful they could just as easily lose another in the process and that wasn’t going to happen on their watch.


	25. Chapter 24

Leo and Mikey came out of the stairwell just in time to see Raph using one of his sias to wrench the lock off of an apartment door and force his way inside. Together the oldest and youngest hurried after the hothead both to help him search for their missing brother and to keep him from doing something foolish that could get them all caught.

“Raph,” Leo hissed quietly after his brother. “Raph slow down. I want to find Don just as badly as you but we won’t do him any good if whoever took him hears us and gets us too.”

That thought, the idea of something happening to one of his remaining brothers, was what finally pulled Raph to a stop as he waited for the others to catch up with him. As much as Raph wanted to get Don back, and nothing would stop him from doing just that, he wouldn’t allow his actions to be what caused any harm to either of his brothers as long as there was something that he could do about it.

Mikey walked up and placed a hand on Raph’s shoulder trying to give back some of the comfort that Raph had given him throughout the week.

“We’ll find him Raphie,” Mikey said. “Now of us are going to give up until we find Don and kick the butt of whoever tried taking him from us in the first place.”

Raph took a deep breath and only when his muscles relaxed slightly did Mikey let go of his brother. Since they were already inside the apartment it was an easy enough decision to begin their search for their missing brother in their. If the apartment they were currently in was anything to go by, the ones on this floor were bigger than the ones that they had just been searching. The kitchen and living areas were their own separate rooms in here. There was a closet for storage space. The bathroom was itself bigger than a closet and the bedroom had room to move around in it.

While this made the place feel less closed in to Mikey it also meant that there was more area to cover in searching. In addition, despite the extra space there weren’t any extra windows and the place was just as dim as the apartments upstairs had been.

It was by unspoken agreement that all three of them stuck together and didn’t break apart to search more dwellings at the same time. If Don could be taken while Mikey was right with him than there was no way of knowing what could happen to any of them if they were to venture into part of the building by themselves.

They were quick but efficient as they searched together finding nothing but a few odds and ends that had been left behind by the last tenant. There were no signs of their missing brother or anyone else for that matter. That lack of clues was quickly building Raph’s temper back up and Leo kept them moving forward and onto the next apartment.

As much as they all wanted to rush through and hurry from one empty apartment to the next Leo forced them to slow down and take their time. He reminded them that they would do Don no good if they missed something that could have led them to him just because they were hurrying too fast.

Mikey turned his nervous energy inward and used it to check for even the smallest possible sign of their missing brother in any nook or cranny that he could think of. Leo checked the dust and cobwebs for disturbances that might tell them where someone had come from and in which direction they had travelled for a hint. Raph made his way to the closet to see if anything had been hidden inside.

Mikey wasn’t keeping a close eye on his brothers since they were right in the same room with him and he had his own searching to pay attention to. He immediately regretted not paying more attention to his brothers when a loud crash and shout of surprise and pain sounded from the closet that Raph had been investigating.

Immediately Leo and Mikey both stopped what they had been doing and rushed over to the closet where Raph had just been. Before Mikey could take a step inside to see what was wrong Leo’s arm came out and stopped him in his tracks. Where Raph had been just moments ago was a giant hole in the floor and no sign of their brother.


	26. Chapter 25

“Raph!” Leo called out.

Mikey tried to push closer to the hole Raph had fallen through but Leo held him back. They had no idea how stable the floor around the hole was and Leo didn’t want to chance losing his last remaining brother to an unstable floor. The distance they had to keep plus the cloud of dust that was making its way out of the hole obscured their view of where their brother would have landed and what shape he was in.

“Raph answer me,” Leo tried again hoping that Raph wasn’t so badly hurt that he couldn’t respond.

Leo and Mikey waited, listening as hard as they could, barely daring to breathe not wanting even the slightest sound to cover up Raph calling out to them. The longer they waited though the more clear it became that Raph wasn’t about to answer them any time soon.

“Damn it,” Leo swore.

Turning on his heels Leo grabbed hold of Mikey by the elbow and pulled them both out of the apartment and back towards the stairs that would bring them down to the next floor where Raph had fallen to. As they hurried Mikey and Leo gave just the barest thought to stealth and secrecy. They already had one brother missing and now another was out of their sight and possibly hurt. There was nothing that was going to stop them from getting to Raph and making sure that he was okay.

When they got down to the next floor Leo and Mikey stopped just outside of the stairwell as Leo worked out which apartment on this floor would be just below the one that they had just been in. There were two doors that looked like they could both lead into the apartment that they were looking for.

Mikey wasn’t completely sure which one to pick since the closet above would end up being right next to either front door down here and he didn’t want to pick wrong and waste time. Leo was more sure of himself however. Taking measured steps down the hallway he paced out how far they had run from the apartment above to the stairwell and used that to determine the distance to where the closet should line up.

Picking the door that was farther away from them Leo tried the doorknob to find it just as locked as all the rest had been. Not wanting to take the time to pick the lock and risk Raph’s potential injuries becoming even worse Leo merely grabbed hold of the knob and wrenched it to the side breaking both it and the lock out of the door and pushing it open.

Mikey was right on Leo’s shell as they rushed into the apartment and over to the front closet that would be directly under the one that Raph had just fallen through. Mikey got their first and flung the door open to see dust still hanging in the air from where it had been disturbed. Plaster, drywall, and and wooden planks litter the floor of the closet and a giant hole in the ceiling showed just where they had all come from. The only thing that wasn’t there was a mutant turtle.

“Raph,” Mikey whispered under his breath. “Where’d you go?”

Leo worked his way passed Mikey to take a look inside the closet himself to see if there was any sign of where Raph may have landed and if he had been hurt in the process. While Leo looked Mikey cast his eyes around the closet as well and the knot that had made its home in his chest the moment he realized Raph had fallen loosened slightly when he saw no sign of blood that would indicate that Raph had been seriously injured from the fall.

“Do you think he climbed back up to the apartment upstairs?” Mikey asked trying to figure out where his brother had disappeared to.

Leo shook his head at that. “No. If he was strong enough to climb the walls to get back upstairs than he would have been able to answer me when I called down to him.”

Mikey bit his lip at the implication those words had. First Don had disappeared and now Raph was gone as well. Stepping back Mikey took a look around the apartment they were in to see if there were any signs of Raph leaving the closet and maybe just trying to find his way out of the apartment and back to him and Leo. Mikey had barely begun to look when he saw something sticking up on the kitchen counter.

Mikey gave one look to Leo who was still looking through the closet and made his way over to the kitchen. Right in the middle of the counter was a steak knife that had been plunged into the wooden boards skewering a piece of paper in the process.

Wrapping his hand around the hilt of the knife Mikey gave it a tug to try and pull it free of the counter only to find it stuck fast. Mikey frowned at how much force must have been used to stick the knife so firmly into the counter. Changing his plan Mikey took hold of the paper and ripped it away from the knife so that he could better read it.

Holding the paper up it only took Mikey a second to read the two lines that were written in an unfamiliar handwriting and it felt like the bottom of his stomach had fallen out when he finished.

“Leo you need to come see this right now,” Mikey called out, his voice squeaking high in fear.


	27. Chapter 26

The fear in Mikey’s voice was more than clear when he yelled for his older brother and it brought Leo to his side in a flash.

“What is it Mikey?” Leo demanded as he looked his brother up and down for any signs of something being wrong with him.

Silently Mikey held out the paper for Leo to read. Leo was just as fast at reading the two lines as Mikey had been and the scowl on his face showed that he had a similar reaction to his youngest brother.

“Two down. Two to go,” Leo read out loud. “Where did you find this?”

“It was stuck to the counter with a knife,” Mikey said pointing to the object in question.

Leo walked over to the counter and took a look at the knife and gave it his own experimental tug finding it just as stuck as when Mikey had tried it. Glancing down once more at the paper to see if it could offer up and more clues as to who had left it for them and where they had gone.

“What’s going on Leo?” Mikey asked hoping that somehow his leader would have more answers than he did.

Something was going on in the city and now Mikey was starting to think that it had far more to do than just kidnapping random citizens. Whoever was behind all of this somehow knew about him and his brothers. They knew that there were four of them and just how to overpower them be separating them from one another since there was no question that they were stronger when fighting together.

“I don’t know Mikey but we’re going to find out,” Leo said putting as much confidence into his voice as he could. “We’re going to find our brothers and put a stop to whoever is behind all of this. We won’t leave until we’ve got them back and made sure that they are okay.”

Mikey nodded drawing strength and calm from his older brother. While Mikey knew that he could stand on his own if he had to he felt better when he had at least one of his brothers there with him backing him up in case he needed it.

“You check out the bedroom and bathroom. I’ll see if I can find out who left this note,” said Leo. “Whoever it was must have done it after Raph fell for it to be this specific which means they were here not too long ago. Hopefully I can find some clue as to where they went.”

Mikey looked out of the kitchen with trepidation. Unlike the apartments they had searched before the kitchen was a separate room from the living room which was also separated from the bedroom. If he followed Leo’s orders than they would be out of sight of one another and Mikey wasn’t sure that he was ready to do that after just having lost two others.

Leo could see the trepidation in Mikey’s expression and made an effort to soften his own. There was no doubt in Leo’s mind that his youngest brother was stressed out by everything that was happening and knew that it was his job as the leader to keep control of the situation even when things seemed to be going off the rails.

“It will be okay Mikey. Nothing’s going to get to you while I’m here,” Leo promised.

Leo wasn’t often in the habit of making promises that he couldn't keep so just hearing that from his bog brother was enough to ease some of Mikey’s fears as he turned around and left the room. Quickly he made his way through the living room and into the bedroom to see if Raph had dragged himself in there possibly hoping for a more defensible position if he was injured.

Behind him Mikey could hear Leo going through the different cabinets to see if there was anything else that he could find. Trying his best to ignore what his older brother was doing while simultaneously keeping an ear out just in case he was needed Mikey set about looking under the bed that had been left behind by the last tenant and through the closet in there as well taking a few minutes to make sure that he did a thorough job.

Unfortunately for the sea green turtle there was nothing in the room for him to find or give him any clue as to where his brother could have been taken to. It took all of his self control not to kick the bed in frustration as Mikey walked out of the bedroom and back towards the kitchen.

Halfway back to the kitchen it occurred to Mikey that he couldn’t hear any noise coming from the kitchen. Picking up his pace Mikey ran through the living and come to a dead stop in the middle of the kitchen. It was completely empty. Leo was gone now as well.


	28. Chapter 27

“Leo!” Mikey yelled hoping for a response from his brother.

At this point stealth was the last thing on his mind and Mikey no longer cared if someone else overheard him. At least in that case it would give him someone to hit and take his fear out on until he could get his brothers back. No one threatened his family and got away with it. With his brothers having been taken by some unknown force it was up to him now to save them.

That didn’t mean that facing this unknown threat by himself didn't chill him to the bone. Especially knowing that whatever was doing this was strong enough to overpower three of the strongest people that he knew.

A frantic heartbeat and harsh breathing filled Mikey’s ears. Wide blue eyes flicked wildly around the room as Mikey backed himself up against a wall with his nunchucks spinning dangerously in front of him.

The peeling wallpaper and low gargling from the sink gave the kitchen he was in an eerie vibe. In the corner the refrigerator stood silently foreboding despite its decrepit state of disrepair.

He was alone.

Each of his brothers had disappeared one by one. _Taken_ a small portion of his brain whispered to him. _They were taken and you’re next._

Squeezing his eyes shut tight Mikey shook his head vigorously to try and rid himself of the unpleasant thoughts. His brothers were fine. They were ninjas after all. They had all faced off against worse than a scary apartment building before and come out the other side. _You were all together during those fights though_ the annoying little voice inside of his head reminded him.

“Not always,” Mikey whispered to himself as he squared his shoulders. “I fought Kluh all alone and beat him twice. I can face this alone and beat it too. My bros are counting on me and I’m not going to let them down.”

Reminding himself of what he was fighting for brought back some of the determination and confidence that had been whittled away with the disappearances of his brothers.

Almost as though sensing the return of the youngest turtle’s confidence and having a desire to squash it, all of the cabinet doors in the kitchen flung themselves open, banging loudly against one another. Drawers shot out of their holders spilling forgotten utensils across the floor. The groaning that he been coming from the sink suddenly got louder right before murky water began gushing from the ancient faucet.

Turning on his heels Mikey rushed out of the kitchen and away from the invisible entity tearing the room apart. As Mikey raced into the living area whatever had decided to trash the kitchen followed. The broad dust covered windows shook in their frames. The only things keeping them from being flung wide open to let who knows what inside were the old rusty locks.

His nunchucks were spinning at a deadly rate of speed in his hands as Mikey spun around searching for where the attack was going to come from that he was sure was headed his way. Above his head the abandoned lightbulbs flickered weakly to life before becoming brighter and brighter until Mikey had to squint to see. The lightbulbs gave one more vicious pulse of light before shattering and sending shards of glass raining down onto the floor.

Michelangelo was no coward but even he knew when he was in over his head and this was it. It was time for a tactical retreat back to the lair to get Splinter. With his sensei’s help Mikey felt he’d have a better chance of finding and saving his brothers.

Mikey made a giant leap over the hazardous array of glass and to the front door of the apartment quickly tucking away one weapon to free his hand as he went. Reaching for the doorknob the sea green turtle gave it a sharp tug to escape the crazy apartment into the hallway only for the door to refuse to budge so much as an inch. A quick glance told the turtle that none of the locks were engaged and a second yank at the door proved just as futile as the first.

The door had been locked from the outside.

Mikey was trapped and alone.

Spinning around Mikey pressed his shell flat against the door so that no one would be able to sneak up behind him. Even if someone did try that it would mean that they would have to open the door first and then he could use that exit to escape from.

Wide eyes whirled around the room looking for what was going to come at him next. Mikey’s attention was drawn up to the ceiling in a flash when a large square section came falling down to slam into the floor while a white object came flying right right at him faster than he could follow.

Raising his arms up to block the incoming hit Mikey let out a high pitched scream of fear just as the flying item slammed into him.


	29. Chapter 28

Mikey screamed as the white object hit him full force in the face barely even reacting to the hits by his nunchucks. With his arms flailing around trying to get his attacker off of him it took Mikey a minute to realize that it wasn’t fighting him back. In fact it wasn’t even moving anymore at all.

“What the shell?” Mikey whispered as he jerked back to back a better look at the thing that had broken through the ceiling to fly straight at him.

Hanging down in front of the door where he had just been standing was a white bedsheet with two eyes and a wide mouth drawn in black marker to make it look like a ghost. Mikey looked up to see the string that it was hanging from stretch across the ceiling and back to the hole that it had fallen out of showing exactly how it had flown straight at him moments ago.

The sound of the locks on the door being undone drew Mikey’s attention right back to it and his nunchucks came up again spinning and ready for whatever new attack might be coming his way. When the door flung open it was to a sight he wasn’t expecting to see.

“Surprise,” Don, Raph, and Leo yelled out.

Wide grins spread across their faces in sharp contrast to confusion that was written all of Mikey’s. The youngest turtle’s brain was having a hard time following the quick turn of events that had lead him from having all of his brothers taken from him to having them standing right in front of him safe and sound without a scratch on them.

“Surprise little brother,” Raph preened as he walked into the apartment and flung an arm around Mikey’s shoulders pulling him in and giving him a quick noogie. “We so totally got you.”

Mikey just kept staring at them trying to figure out what was going on in front of him and why his brothers were safe and together. They had been taken. Kidnapped just like all of the people that they had been hunting to try and get back. Why were they safe? It made absolutely no sense.

“Happy early Halloween Mikey,” Don said as he walked into the apartment giving his younger brother a light punch to the shoulder the Raph had just let go of.

“I don’t understand,” Mikey said weakly looking at Leo for help as though maybe he could explain the insanity that was going on in front of him.

“Halloween is a holiday of both tricks and treats Mikey,” Leo explained with an easy smile. “The treats will come on the actual holiday but right now this is or trick for you.”

Mikey blinked twice as though Leo had suddenly started speaking a foreign language and he was having a hard time processing it.

“But, but,” he stumbled trying to piece everything together. “But what about the kidnappings and the scream we heard earlier tonight and all of you going missing and the things flying at me in the apartment and everything else?”

Raph grinned wolfishly at all of the pieces that the eldest three had carefully put together. “All a part of the trick little brother,” Raph crowed.

Leo decided in that moment to take pity on the youngest. “Why don’t we head home and we can explain everything there?” Leo offered.

Mikey just nodded his head dumbly and followed his brothers out of the apartment and back up to the roof. There may not be anything dangerous in the apartment that they had to stay hidden from but that didn’t mean that they could just stroll right out onto the streets. It may be the middle of the night but they could take foolish chances that someone might still be awake this late and spot them if they weren’t careful.

As they made their way home Mikey couldn’t help but keep a close eye on each of his brothers. It was just starting to sink in that everything was fine and that none of them had really been in any danger but the fear that he had felt had been real and Mikey knew he wasn’t going to be one hundred percent calm again until they were all back home safe and sound.


	30. Chapter 29

The trip back to the lair was very uneventful. There were no scream for help coming from the streets. No cars whizzing by that they needed to chase down. No thugs trying to kidnap people that were just trying to mind their own business. No brothers disappearing if Mikey took his eyes off of them for more than a few seconds.

In fact the trip home was just like the countless that they made every time they finished with an uneventful patrol. If Mikey didn’t have clear memories about how he had just spent the past few hours he would have thought that this was just another patrol night that he’d dozed off during and had a nightmare. The smirks and high threes that his brothers kept sharing between each other was a clear reminder that everything that had just happened was no nightmare. At least not the kind he had while he was asleep.

Mikey barely contained himself and everything that he wanted to know until they got back to the lair but he managed. He managed right up until they had just barely crossed over the threshold of their home before he began demanding answers, real answers, from his brothers.

“What the shell was all of that tonight?” Mikey snapped. “What the shell was with the scream and the disappearing and the blood and the note and the ghost and then just showing back up like nothing had happened? What about all of the people that have been kidnapped all over the city. And don’t just say it was a trick. I think I deserve a better explanation than that.”

Don took the youngest by the wrist and pulled him over to the couch and made him sit down as the rest of them took their normal places around the living room.

“It was a Halloween trick Mikey,” Don said holding up a hand to stop his brother from interrupting. “The idea behind the saying ‘trick or treat’ is that treats would be offered up in exchange for a trick not being done to someone. We decided to just go ahead and go with the trick this year. Well Leo did anyway. He was the one that thought up all of this. The rest of us just agreed to help him out with it.”

That got Mikey’s immediate attention and his head whipped around to stare at his oldest brother. Leo met Mikey’s gaze easily looking half sheepish and half pleased with himself.

“Dude,” Mikey breathed out sounding amazed despite himself. “So not cool.”

Leo merely shrugged at the criticism. “You’re not the only one capable of pulling off elaborate pranks Mikey. You’re just the one that does it the most often. I figured that if I was going to pull one over on you than I’d have to go big and for that I’d need some extra help.”

Mikey continued to stare at the leader as a bunch of little things that had happened over the past few days began to make more sense. The patrols that they had gone on when they hadn’t stuck together the way they normally did should have been his first clue that something out of the ordinary was going on.

“How did you guys pull it all off? Are those people even really missing?” Mikey asked voicing his biggest concern.

“No,” Leo was quick to reassure knowing that Mikey’s worry about other people being hurt wouldn’t just vanish the moment he found out about the prank. “Not really. I got Don to find some old missing persons reports to use and fabricated most of them to create the spiral pattern that you noticed on the map.”

“You actually almost went and ruined that part of the prank,” Raph said. “We weren’t planning on going through the apartment tonight but you had to go and notice that the people that were supposed to be missing didn’t live where the reports said they did so Fearless sent us a text saying we had to move the plan up and we were doing it tonight.”

That cause Mikey to give a pleased smile to his brothers. He may have fallen for their trick hook, line, and sinker but at least he had thrown a wrench into their plans even if he hadn’t known it at the time.

“So what else did you guys do?” Mikey asked wanting to know the full extent of the trick at this point.

“Well I’m the one that set up all of the things that happened inside the apartment tonight,” Don explained. “Making the drawers fly out and the water turn on. Getting the ghost to fly across the room and the floor to fall out from underneath Raph was my part in this.”

Raph leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the coffee table since Master Splinter wasn’t there to scold him. “I was in charge of containing you and making sure you didn’t find out anything that you weren’t supposed to too early. That’s why we went through that apartment a couple of nights ago. That guy wasn’t actually missing. I scoped out the place ahead of time. He just works the night shift at the corner store down the street so I knew he wouldn’t be there when we went by.”

“And I’m the one that thought up the idea and planned everything out,” said Leo taking credit for his own role. “Master Splinter, April, and Casey didn’t really do anything other than to make sure not to let anything slip. I knew if we got you going about the missing people than they would find out and want to help and I didn’t want them blowing the secret by accident.”

Mikey whistled long and low as everything that his brothers had done was laid out in front of him for him to see. Normally he was the master of pranks in their family and he knew exactly what it took to pull something like this off and he was impressed. This took thought and planning to get the execution just right without him catching on that anything was out of the ordinary. As much as he hated to admit it, they had gotten him and gotten him good.

“You guys got me,” Mikey conceded. “Next year though, you’d all better watch your backs because I’m going to get you all back and now I know just how dirty I can play. You may have set the bar Leo but I’ve got way more practice at leaping over it than you do. You’ve just unleashed a Halloween prank war and I don’t intend to lose.”

With that Mikey stood up from the couch and made his way up to his room. It had been a long night and he was more than ready for a little shut eye. As soon as he woke up tomorrow though, that was when the planning would start. He fully intended on keeping his promise about getting them back and there was only a year to get ready until next Halloween.


	31. Chapter 30

The haunted holiday had finally arrived and with it the party that Mikey had planned in between worrying over the trick that his brothers had pulled on him. His Turtle Titan costume was out of the closet, dusted off, and ready to be shown off. As much fun as he was sure the party was going to be Mikey still couldn’t get over the fact that Leo of all people had been the one to think up the trick in the first place and had managed to pull it off so spectacularly.

As far as Mikey was concerned the only reason that his oldest brother had even managed to pull the wool over his eyes in the first place was because he’d had the help of their entire family. Everyone had ganged up on him. It just wasn’t fair. In return Mikey had made sure that they all knew the only reason they had even managed it was because they had all worked together and he wouldn’t have needed anyone else’s help to pull off something so spectacular.

Not willing to let his public humiliation ruin the festivities of the night however, Mikey endeavoured to move on for the sake of the party and think up something even bigger to trick his brothers with next year. As far as Mikey was concerned Leo better watch his back because he had just made himself prank target number one and Mikey wasn’t about to hold back.

“Mikey, control your pet,” Leo groaned as he walked into the living room trying to gently push Klunk away with one foot.

The small cat was determined to chase after the white rags that Leo had hanging off of him as part of his mummy costume. Every time Klunk jumped on one of them it pulled at Leo and forced the turtle to stop what he was doing so that he wouldn’t risk hurting the cat by accident.

Mikey just shrugged and watched as Klunk made another leap at Leo’s leg. “Sorry bro. No can do. You know how cats are. They have a mind of their own. Best of luck though.”

The sea green turtle walked away cackling to himself as he heard Leo calling after him again but chose to ignore it. In the kitchen where the treats had been spread out over the dining table was the rest of his family. Master Splinter had chosen not to dress but was wearing a wooden practice sword at his side to humor his son’s demand of some type of costume.

April and Casey had come to the lair dressed as Morticia and Gomez from the Addams family. Don was wearing a lab coat and goggles making him a mad scientist and had managed to convince Raph to do some face painting and attach two fake bolts to the sides of his neck making him Don’s monster.

Standing in the doorway to the kitchen Mikey couldn’t stop the wide smile that broke out on his face. Not that he would want to. His whole family was here safe and sound. Nothing was attack the city that he called home and no one was being hurt. Everyone that he loved was here and happy and there was truly nothing more that he could possibly want for.

Sure his family had all conspired against him to trick him but it had just been in the spirit of the season and he couldn’t help but admit, only to himself though, that it had been a really good trick and looking back on it, it had been a lot of fun. Next year though, next year would be his year and everyone had better watch out because now the bar had been set and there was no way that Mikey wasn’t planning on leaping over it.


End file.
